The Asiatic Review 1920

THE

ASIATIC REVIEW

JANUARY, 1920

..ft.— McffUTT i

SOME NOTES ON THE NEW iCT
By T. J. Bennett, m.p.

I have been asked to give the readers of the Asiatic
Review my impressions of the Government of India Act.
In the space allotted to me I can say but little. Its out-
standing quality seems to me to be the courage with which,
on the one hand, it has enlarged the political opportunities
and liberties of the Indian people, and, on the other, has
resisted the temptation to give way to a specious idealism.

I have small patience with the people who in Parliament
and in a subsidized Press tell us that the Act offers only a
small instalment of reform, and that India must go on
agitating for what they are pleased to consider the real
article. India will have quite enough to do in the next
decade in developing and educating an electorate, and in
learning how to choose the best men for the Legislative
Councils, just as the Councils themselves will have enough
to do in developing a parliamentary spirit and parliamentary
aptitudes, and in learning how to get the best work out of
the men selected to serve it in the Ministries. If this is

VOL. xvi.

A

2

Some Notes on the New Act

realized by the Indians themselves the new policy will
succeed, and it is in the belief that they will realize it that
Parliament has determined on this great experiment. The
time for arguing on the fundamentals of the question has
gone. Political and administrative facts have now to take
the place of arguments. We are no longer concerned
with evidence as to whether or not the Brahmins and
the intelligenzia in general are likely to subject the people
to an oppressive oligarchy. The men who have the gift
of leadership will have to show in practice that they are not
out for the benefit of their own class, but for the good
of the Commonwealth. What has been proved on evidence
before the Joint Committee will now have to be inde-
fensibly proved by unselfish, honest, and capable administra-
tion by the new men who will be called to power. They know
that they have been distrusted and condemned in advance,
although Parliament has rejected the condemnation. They
know that it will lie with them to prove that the more generous
and truthful view which the British Parliament has so
emphatically taken is the true one. They know, too, that
while informed English opinion as a whole believes that
the experiment embodied in the Act is wise and prudent,
there is a school of publicists at home who will seize upon
every failure, every indiscretion, every exhibition of a lack
of political sense, as a proof of the inaptitude of Indians for
self-government. The Act, as a great measure of con-
stitutional government, is a triumph of the accommodating,
practical spirit which has actuated the moderate school of
Indian politicians. These men can to-day confront the
extreme school with an accomplished fact It will no
longer be said that moderation does not pay in Indian
politics. The contradiction of this is written large on the
history of this great act of legislation. Nothing wouM
more certainly tend to arrest the fuller evolution of self-
government in India than the policy of factions who trust
to agitation as a means to the capture of larger liberties
rather than to steady and practical endeavours to make the

Some Notes on the New Act

3

best use of the opportunities now open to Indian polit 1Gians -
It is not by any means a case for the application of the
old Whig maxim : “ Rest and be thankful.” The ls
not to rest, but to work — to work for the fullest utili zatlon
of the advantages which have been freely and confi4ently
placed in the hands of the Indian people.

2

Some Notes on the New Act

realized by the Indians themselves the new policy will
succeed, and it is in the belief that they will realize it that
Parliament has determined on this great experiment. The
time for arguing on the fundamentals of the question has
gone. Political and administrative facts have now to take
the place of arguments. We are no longer concerned
with evidence as to whether or not the Brahmins and
the intelligenzia in general are likely to subject the people
to an oppressive oligarchy. The men who have the gift
of leadership will have to show in practice that they are not
out for the benefit of their own class, but for the good
of the Commonwealth. What has been proved on evidence
before the Joint Committee will now have to be inde-
fensibly proved by unselfish, honest, and capable administra-
tion by the new men who will be called to power. They know
that they have been distrusted and condemned in advance,
although Parliament has rejected the condemnation. They*-'
know that it will lie with them to prove that the more generous
and truthful view which the British Parliament has so
emphatically taken is the true one. They know, too, that
while informed English opinion as a whole believes that
the experiment embodied in the Act is wise and prudent,
there is a school of publicists at home who will seize upon
every failure, every indiscretion, every exhibition of a lack
of political sense, as a proof of the inaptitude of Indians for
self-government. The Act, as a great measure of con-
stitutional government, is a triumph of the accommodating,
practical spirit which has actuated the moderate school of
Indian politicians. These men can to-day confront the
extreme school with an accomplished fact It will no
longer be said that moderation does not pay in Indian
politics. The contradiction of this is written large on the
history of this great act of legislation. Nothing would
more certainly tend to arrest the fuller evolution of self-
government in India than the policy of factions who trust
to agitation as a means to the capture of larger liberties
rather than to steady and practical endeavours to make the

Some Notes on the New Act

3

best use of the opportunities now open to Indian politicians.
It is not by any means a case for the application of the
old Whig maxim : “ Rest and be thankful.” The call is
not to rest, but to work — to work for the fullest utilization
of the advantages which have been freely and confidently
placed in the hands of the Indian people.

4

THE NEW GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT
AND ITS CRITICS

By Sir J. D. Rees, k.c.i.e., c.v.o., m.p.

The only practicable method, as it seems to me, of dealing
with the Government of India Act is to consider whether
or not it carries out the announcement made in Parliament
in 1917, and whether it does not go far enough, or goes too
far, in that direction. I am often asked whether I approve
of the Act, and how approval of the Act is consistent with
opinions previously expressed in favour of the present
method of government in India, and against its abolition.
The answer seems to me to be very simple. Conditions in
India have changed during and since the war — at least as
much as in Europe — and one cannot fail to feel that the
old order has been destroyed, and that the change has
all been in the direction of the elevation of those who were
previously in a more or less dependent, industrial, or other
state, or in a more or less menial capacity. Nor is the
change less great as regards the altered position of States
forming parts of great empires, protectorates, dependencies,
Crown colonies, etc. Many of these have acquired the
position of practical independence before the war, others
have almost reached it during the war ; those who have
done neither are impatiently awaiting their own emancipa-
tion or enfranchisement. Of what practical use is it to
judge matters by pre-war standards ? All the autocratic
thrones of Europe are in the dust : the Habsburgs,
Romanoffs, and Hohenzollerns are gone. Persia is
governed by a limited Parliament ; China is a republic.
Of what avail is it to suggest that an autocratic bureau-

The New Government of India Act and its Critics 5

cracy can remain intact, especially at a time when the
leaders of the British nation are protesting that they fought
the war to make the world free for democracy, and when
we have been teaching the Indians in our schools for a
century that there is nothing like political liberty and
democratic government.

] do not believe myself that the majority of the Indian
Civil Servants will be found to maintain that a suitable
advance in democracy can be avoided. It is not a question
of what an individual desires, but of what the circumstances
demand, and whether the Act fits into them. I think it
does. Unfortunately, at some stage in the proceedings an
amateur student appeared upon the scene with all the
technological and other equipment of a student of consti-
tutions, and it is to him, so far as I can make out, that the
dreadful word " diarchy ” is due.

There is really nothing in the least new or extraordinary
about the division of functions between different ministers.
It is done everywhere. The only thing that is new is making
Indians ministers, and those who cry out against diarchy are
really objecting to the transfer of functions to Indian
ministers, and not to so obvious a proceeding as the
division of portfolios between different members of the
same Government. Of course, it is quite new in India
that the ministers should be responsible to the Legislature
and the Legislature to an electorate. But Parliament had
already accepted these general lines in the declaration
of 1917.

Objections are taken to the electorate in two quarters :
one that it is too large, and empowers people who are too
illiterate to exercise the franchise ; another who say it is
too small, and represents chiefly the landed interests.
Those who make the latter objection do not know that
most of the landlords in India are quite small folk — the
vast majority, indeed, correspond to the working men of
the United Kingdom. Those who object that the electorate
is too small fail to realize the fact that there was never in

6 The New Government of India Act and its Critics

the history of the world so large an electorate created at
one and the same time. I cannot myself share the objec-
tion raised to the present policy on the ground that it is
likely to place power in the hands of an oligarchy, and I
should suppose that oligarchy was a necessary and inevitable
stage on the road from autocracy to self-government. It
is a stage which in the United Kingdom lasted for a very
long period, and a period during which Britain became
great.

Again, the Brahmins are the natural leaders of the
Hindus. Hinduism and Brahminism signify the same
thing, and if it be objected that you might as well say
that the peers were the natural leaders of the English
people I would reply that the latter have been governed
by the great governing families, and that they, who were
mostly peers, have been, until quite recent times, the real
leaders and governors of the British people.

The extraordinary importance and impartiality of the
reforms to which the Act gives expression is evidenced,
among other things, by the fact that the measure is equally
obnoxious to extremists on both sides, and the only
opposition in the House of Commons proceeded from the
reactionary and the revolutionary elements. In the debate
in the House of Lords, where reasonable opposition to the
Act might have been most expected, very little was ex-
perienced. I do not think that any peer really roundly
opposed the Act except Lord Sydenham, who has placed
himself at the head of the malcontents. During the
proceedings in Committee I devoted myself, amongst other
things, to defending in particular the Brahmins and upper
classes against misrepresentation of their true position as I
understand it, and I do not myself believe the reservation
of seats for non-Brahmins was necessary.

The Committee thought that it was best to retain the
power of affirmative legislation for the local and central
legislative councils without concealing or camouflaging the
fact. Grave objections will be taken, it is said, when the

The New Government of India Act and its Critics 7

Governors act under the powers provided by the Act ; but
the Committee expressly stated that they regarded these
powers as part of the ordinary equipment of the Governors,
to be used when required, and not to be regarded as
exceptional in character. The Council of State has now
frankly been made a second chamber, and as this change
is coupled with another whereby the members will be
directly elected by a separate constituency from that which
elects the provincial Legislative Councils, it seems to me
that the existence of the former body is likely to be very
beneficial, and surely if any Government in the world
deserves and requires a second chamber it would be that
of India, which deals with so vast an area, so stupendous
a population, and so many and so different thrones, domi-
nations, princedoms, virtues, powers.

Criticism has been directed against the deputations
that came over here, but it is a fact that such deputations
as came to England in connection with this Act gave
evidence of very great value, and many individuals of
considerable eminence and distinction in India made their
statements before the Committee. The acceptance by the
Committee of the evidence of Mr. Tilak has aroused
comment, but he tendered evidence, and it seems to me
that the Committee was right to take it. All the proceedings
had to conform to British parliamentary standards and
British political practice. The fact may be deplored that
Irish agitators are released for political purposes, and are
consulted as regards reforms ; but can a wholly different
standard be adopted as regards Mr. Tilak and India ?
It is of no use now to say that different standards are
applicable to India, and that everything must be measured
by another rule. That is exactly what they will not have
in India, and if I understand anything of the feelings of
Parliament in this matter it is that that argument will no
longer be accepted. A good deal passed muster in the
first decade of this century when Lord Morley was Secretary
of State for India, only because he was the most distinguished

8 The New Government of India Act and its Critics

Radical of his day. Acts of the like nature will probably
never be approved by Parliament again. I refer at the
moment to deportations under certain circumstances, and
to the conduct of local governors and military authorities
in putting down riots and rebellions which will, no doubt,
in future be very severely searched. Upon this score J
should prefer to say nothing, as the Amritsar case is before
a tribunal appointed to consider the questions arising from
the suppression of the riots in that city last year.

On the whole, I think the Act is a very good Act, and
many of those who at first blamed it now bless it. 1 hope
and believe that it will allay political strife and discontent
in India, and from all the information I receive from public
and private sources there is much discontent and dissatisfac-
tion to be removed.

9

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL
By “ Dewan ”

I. The Proposals

India is once again at the crossroads. During all her long,
eventful history, in which many crises have arisen and died
away, many systems of government have been followed,
many shocks have disturbed the whole fabric of society,
and many imperceptible changes have hardened into con-
crete and permanent forms, no time has been so big with
import as the present. For the first time in history is an
attempt to be made to establish the beginnings of an all-
Indian Government, which is eventually destined — as its
authors hope — to include Hindus, Mahomedans, Sikhs,
and the many other divergent racial subdivisions which
constitute the peoples of India, in one undivided Govern-
ment from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas. The conse-
quences of the attempt we cannot yet foresee, but of its
magnitude there is no doubt. The future of the Indian
Empire is in the melting-pot.

It were useless to discuss whether a new basis of
government were necessary. The matter is all but
accomplished, and must be accepted accordingly. At all
events none can say after reading the Report presented to
both Houses of Parliament that the scheme has not been
carefully thought out. For the historical Preface we have
nothing but admiration. The subject has been treated
and considered with the widest reference to precedent
conditions, and the events leading up to the present state
of affairs and to modern aspects of Indian political thought
have been carefully focused. Part I. of the Report is both

io The Government of India Bill

clear and illuminating, and no one should study the
proposals which follow without first reading it.

The Morley-Minto Reforms have not proved altogether
a failure ; they and their application have given rise to
much criticism, though little, it must be admitted, of a
constructive nature, and they have been the means of
bringing clearly forward what the various types of re-
formers ask for. Unfortunately, perhaps, in India there is
no “ public opinion,” as the term is understood in Europe,
and the so-called Indian opinion is chiefly that of sections
of the people who talk most loudly. Thus they have
proved that the system of recruitment of the Legislative
Council has not been a happy one, and the Report shows
how greatly the legal element among the people attained
political ascendancy. Although measures to combat this
tendency are to be undertaken, there is yet a great danger
of the preponderance of legislators of the legal profession
retaining their seats either in the Provincial or in the
Indian Councils in the future. The political education
of the electors will doubtless compel a remedy in time,
but the process is bound to be slow. Whatever may be
the eventual composition of the Councils, we must always
expect to encounter a number of irreconcilables— some
dangerous, but most merely wordy. The inclusion of the
Congress League Scheme in the Report, and the necessary
criticism made in considering its proposals, has the effect
of shoeing how very little the authors know of the funda-
mental principles of good government according to
modern ideas. It is not unlikely that a considerable
number of members of the Congress League will find a
seat in one or other of the proposed councils, and there is
little doubt that the kindly official criticism of their scheme
as made in the Report will have the effect of showing them
on what lines their ideas have to be corrected or guided.
It must not be forgotten that much of the political clamour
of recent years has been the result of indulgence of, in
many instances, an irresponsible press, and when a part is

The Government of India Bill 1 1

given we must expect a continued and insistent demand
for more. That is the Indian way.

The new proposals are admittedly only to cover the
period of transition between the present form of govern-
ment and a still farther advanced scheme of what is known
as “ responsible " government, and we cannot help wonder-
ing how long the period of transition will last. Doubtless
that will depend upon the time taken to educate the people
as a whole in politics, and it will take time for them to
realize the value of the vote, and how best to use it
collectively for their own good. This again will be
considerably dependent on the efforts made to foster female
education. Not that Indian women will be ready to take
a part in the franchise for many years to come, but their
eventual influence should be considerable, and it is probable
that one result of the forthcoming reforms will be to
advance the cause of the education of women, about which
so much has been talked of late years, and so little,
comparatively, has been done.

The main idea of the new proposals is that the welfare
of the individual is to be the care of local bodies and
Provincial Governments, and the State is to be the care of
the Government of India. As regards the changes affect-
ing municipalities and other purely local organizations
there is little to say. The greater freedom allowed them
of recent years has not been universally a success, and with
the granting to them of still further immunity from direct
official control we must expect to find them in many cases
even less efficient in the performance of their duties.
However, there is no reason why this should prove more
than inconvenient. Mistakes will not be of a dangerous
nature, and perhaps the experience of partial failure will be
productive of profitable experience for those who seek
to enter a larger political life through them. Far more
important are the changes which are to affect the Provincial
Governments. Theirs will be the principal task in giving
effect to the new proposals, and for some years at least the

1 2 The Government of India Bill

life of a Governor of a Province is likely to be analogous to
that of the policeman in a once well-known song. His
responsibilities will be enormously increased, and only the
best men are likely to be equal to the task. The Govern-
ment of India will not be affected to a like degree, and we
may for all intents and purposes pass by the decisions
made as regards parliamentary control and th* Secretary
of State. Important as they are, they are affected merely
in principle, and what they do or do not do will have very
little effect on the Indian people, either individually or
collectively. We are not at all sure that the taking of a
greater interest in Indian affairs by Parliament will be of
value unless it is also intelligent. Irresponsible questions
are likely to do far more harm than good, and it is un-
fortunately not possible to ensure for every Member an
Indian education in India, without which it will be im-
possible for him to take an intelligent interest in matters
either of internal movement or of individual concern.

The primary condition of government is finance, and
this aspect is the first discussed in the Report. The
financial changes appear to be all for the good, and
Provincial Governments are to be given a free hand in
dealing with their income and expenditure. The old
scheme is to go “by the board,’* and Indian revenue is to
be allocated as follows : —

Provincial Governments will control the income under
the heads of (i) stamps (judicial), (2) excise, (3) land
revenue, (4) possible loans (made through the Govern-
ment of India so as to prevent competition in the open
market), and (5) possible new taxes.

The Government of India, who will be primarily respon-
sible for defence, will receive (1) stamps (general), (2) income
tax, (3) fixed contributions from each Province, based on
a percentage of difference between gross provincial revenue
and expenditure, (4) possible interest on loans to Provincial
Governments.

It is to be presumed that this division has been made

The Government of India Bill 1 3

after consulting the necessary figures, showing what each
source of revenue ordinarily yields, and what the average
financial requirements of the Government of India are likely
to be The Provincial Governments, while taking land
revenue, are also to be responsible for irrigation and
famine relief, and in the latter case it is laid down that they
will hold a portion of their resources, based on the average
famine liabilities, in reserve, which should be added to
annually, but not drawn upon except for famine purposes
Apparently provincial budgets will have to be sent to the
Government of India for information, but the control of
expenditure will remain entirely at the discretion of the
Provincial Governments The scheme appears to be prefer-
able to the more complicated method at present followed,
and it is likely to lessen considerably the burden of work in
connection with finance at the headquarters of the Govern-
ment of India If there were no other reason, this would
be sufficient to commend the change

It has already been noticed that the principal changes will
affect the Provincial Governments They are to be entirely
reconstituted As before, they will consist of two parts —
viz , Executive and Legislative The executive govern
ments will be composed as follows

1 Executive Council consisting of the Governor, one
English official, and one Indian (nominated by the
Governor)

2 Ministers, consisting of one or two, chosen from the
Legislative Council, and appointed during the duration of
the latter.

3 Additional members, consisting of one, or two, English
officials, without portfolio

For all practical purposes those composing the third
category may be for the present left out of account, for
their functions will be merely advisory The Executive
Council and the Ministers will divide the work of Govern-
ment between them, and to this end the various items which
it comprises will be divided under two heads, (a) Reserved

14

The Government of Indta Bill

subjects being dealt with by the Governor-in-Council, and
also the ex officio members of the Legislative Council, and
(<5) transferred subjects, which will be under the control of
the Ministers and the Governor It will be seen that the
Governor is likely to have very little spare time

He would be rash who would say that the scheme for
executive government is doomed to failure Its success or
otherwise will largely depend upon the personality of the
Governor, but in any case it is fundamentally ueak It is
difficult, however, to see what other course could be adopted
to cover the transition period The task of governing has
to be taught somehow and the granting of some measure
of responsibility to Indian administrators is a necessary
corollary With the right men at the helm it has every
chance of success, and it is gratifying to learn from a recent
announcement in the press that a small measure of modifica-
tion is being made by the joint Select Committee on the
Bill whereby the Governor’s personal responsibility is to
be in some measure relaxed by associating with him the
advice of his official Council An indifferent scheme of
government is better than none at all, and in view of the
fact that an advance of some sort had to be made to meet
the clamour for a greater share by Indians in the adminis
tration of the country the proposals appear to be the only
possible Much speculation naturally centres on the question
as to what are to compose the “ transferred subjects " Of
these secondary education is likely to be by far the most
important One thing is certain, and that is that once the
scheme is brought into force the English members of the
services m India will support Government wholeheartedly
in endeavouring to make it successful The positions of
the Additional Members without portfolio is not likely to be
greatly envied They will draw only their substantive pay,
and their work is likely to be chiefly m the nature of a
* watching brief’ The disabilities which they will suffer
from with regard to having no vote will be considerable, and
it is to be expected that there will be few desirous of

The Government of India Bill 1 5

assuming the somewhat empty honour attached to the office.
It would appear to have been a better policy to have
enlisted the heads of departments of Government as
advisors — at least for a time.

The legislative side of the Government is that in which
the electorate will have the greater interest. The Legislative
Council will come into being as the result of direct election
on a broad franchise, with such communal and special
representation as may be necessary. Communal representa-
tion will apply only to the Mahomedan and Sikh sections of
the people, and special nomination will be made only in one
or two cases — commer ial communities, Anglo-Indians,
Indian Christians, and the Lingayats being presumably so
represented.

The Council will thus be made up of five classes :

1. Elected members.

2. Communal members.

3. Nominated members.

4. Members of the Executive Council.

5. Official members.

(4) and (5) will not vote on transferred subjects. The
Governor is to have power to dissolve the Legislative
Council, and this will doubtless be a sufficient check to the
introduction of controversial discussion or acrimonious
debate.

There is one class of legislation which is specially
provided for, that of Certified Bills, which will doubtless
require careful handling. Should the Governor think it
necessary that “a Bill dealing with a reserved subject is
essential either for the discharge of his responsibility for
the peace or tranquillity of the province, or of any part
thereof, or for the discharge of his responsibility for reserved
subjects,” he will have power to introduce it, “ certified ”
accordingly. The Bill and certificate will then be published
in the Gazette. It will be introduced and read in the Legis-
lative Council, and, after discussion on its general principles,

1 6 The Government of India Bill

will be referred to a Grand Committee, which will comprise
from 40 to 50 per cent of the Legislative Council, chosen
partly by ballot and partly by election — not more than two-
thirds of the nominated members to be officials. The
Legislative Council may require the Governor to refer the
Bill to the Government of India, whose decision will be
final The process is very cumbersome, and the position of
a Governor whose Bill is not supported by the Government
of India would leave him no option but to resign 1 There
is m this too much of the savour of parliamentary practice,
which will never suit Indian conditions It is bound to
cause delay, and perhaps when the Bill is eventually passed
the urgent need which occasioned its introduction may have
gone In fact the measure is framed too much to meet
diversity of opinion rather than agreement

The new measure affecting directly the Government of
India are changes rather in form In augmentation of the
present Council of the Governor-General will be created a
Council of State, which will have life for five years It is
to consist of fifty members, exclusive of the Viceroy, of
which twenty one will be elected from the Provinces — two
each from Bombay, Madras, Bengal, United Provinces,
Punjab, and Behar and Orissa, and one each from Burma,
Central Provinces, and Assam The Mahomedans, Landed
Classes, and Chambers of Commerce, will each be
represented by two members The nominated members
will include twenty-five officials and tour non-officials
The provincial members will be non official, and will be
elected from the Legislative Councils of their respective
Provinces The other side of the Government of India is
to be termed the Legislative Assembly Its life will be for
three years and its President will be nominated by the
Viceroy It will consist of about one hundred members, of
whom sixty-eight will be elected from the Provinces, eleven
will be non official and special nominations, and the
remainder will comprise nominated officials, including the
Viceroy’s Executive Council

The Government of India Bill 1 7

The arrangements for legislation are far less complicated
than in the case of the Provincial Governments, and the
procedure regarding Bills is much more simple The
Governor-General will have power to dissolve either or
both bodies, and the safeguards of his position appear to
be adequate We are told that “ in the multitude of
councillors there is wisdom, and the new arrangements wity
have ample scope for demonstrating the truth or otherwise
of this dictum

There remains one more important subject in the new
proposals to be dealt with, and that is their application tp
the N ative States The war has show n — if such demonstra
tion were necessary — how much the welfare of the States
and of the English connection in India are interdependent
It would be idle to suppose that all the political agitation
in British India has left the States unaffected British
policy with regard to them has been clearly enunciated over
and over again, and the progress in development is constant,
even if in some cases it may be slow The proposal to
inaugurate a Council of Princes is one which will find
much favour with the Princes themselves Lord Chelms-
ford has only recently announced the Go\ernments
intention to create such a chamber, as a permanent
measure. It is too early yet to see how the announcement
has been received by those most concerned, and it may be
looked upon as the first measure of the new proposals to be
carried into effect, although the idea is one which has been
talked about for many years Its doings will only concern
itself and its order, and there can be no greater mistake
than to consider it as being a House of Lords with no
executive power, as one newspaper recently designated it
To the House of Lords it bears little or no analogy, and
any measure which it may adopt will end at the boundaries
of the State or States concerned That it will operate for
good there can be no doubt, jfor it will be a means of more
direct “ liaison ” between the British Government and the
Native Rulers than has hitherto been the case, w ? hi!e
VOL. xvi. b

1 8 The Government of India Bill

fostering the Imperial idea, and maintaining the principle
that the British Government and the Ruling Princes and
Chiefs are mutually concerned in the welfare of the Indian
Empire and in the status quo. The proposal in the
Report that all States possessing full internal powers are to
have direct relations with the Government of India will
commend itself to the rulers of the States concerned, and it
is to be hoped that the measures for bringing this and the
remaining proposals regardingthe Native States into effect
will soon be accomplished.

Time alone can prove the value of the introduction of a
greater number of Indians into the services, and of the
granting of commissions to Indians in the Army, both of
which are discussed by the authors of the Report. It will
be some years before results in this direction can be judged.
We have set our hand to the plough and cannot now turn
back. The sooner all the proposals contained in the
Report are made effective the better, and it is to be hoped
that much time will not elapse before the subject is
considered in Parliament. It is a year and a half since
Lord Chelmsford and Mr. Montagu signed the proposals,
and nearly as long since the Report was published. Since
then much has happened, and the restoration of peace-time
conditions throughout the Empire makes it desirable that
further delay should be reduced to a minimum. All
valuable evidence must by now have been collected, and it
would appear to be very inadvisable that the country should
be further flooded by deputations from India, who come to
urge their particular views before, in many cases, sections
of the people in England who are not capable of forming
reasoned judgments upon them. A Labour Conference in
the Albert Hall upon such a subject as the extension of the
franchise to Indian women — as recently was the case —
would be humorous if it were not so productive of discontent.
Perhaps the best remedy would be a propaganda campaign
throughout the country by the India Office, but the next
best course is to limit the activities of those who seek

The Government of India Bill 1 9

to gain their ends by distortion and misrepresentation of
facts

How true to-day are the words of Warren Hastings
written so long ago as 1 777, when he says “The
dominion exercised by the British Empire in India is
fraught with many racial and incurable defects, besides
those to which all human institutions are liable, arising
from the distance of its scene of operations the impossi-
bility of furnishing it at all times with those aids which it
requires from home, and the difficulty of reconciling its
primary exigencies with those which in all States ought to
take place of every other concern, the interests of the
people who are subjected to its authority All that the
wisest institutions can effect in such a system can only
be to improve the advantages of a temporary possession,
and to protract that decay which sooner or later must
end it ”

II Thf Bill

Since the foregoing was written, the Parliamentary Joint
Committee has laid before the Houses of Parliament the
Government of India Bill, which is based on the Montagu-
Chelmsford Report, and we are now able to see in what
form the Bill will become law when it has passed the
necessary readings We conclude a study of it with a
mind full of misgivings If the proposals appeared to
concede much, the Joint Committee have gone even
farther, and the feeling cannot be avoided that the
“ margin of safety has been much decreased as a result.
Seemingly the visits of various “advanced deputations,
and the literary outpourings of others, have been weighed
in the balance against the advice of experienced officials
and have turned the scale in their favour Far too little is
said about franchise and election, and there is evidence
throughout the Bill of our former inveterate tendency
to placate our enemies at the expense of our friends It is
very evident that the Joint Committee have not been felt

20

The Government of India Bill

bound by the “ proposals,” and have gone considerably
beyond their authors’ original intentions.

The Committee have dealt first with the Provincial
Governments, as being that part of the Government of
India chiefly affected. The present Lieutenant-Governor-
ships of the United Provinces, Punjab, Behar and Orissa,
Central Provinces, and Assam, are to be raised in status
and will take place as Governorships by the side of Bengal,
Madras, and Bombay. So far, so good. We wonder if it
is too much to hope that in future some of the Governor-
ships will be given to Indian officials, who have rarely held
them hitherto, especially of late years. Indeed it is doubt-
ful whether suitable men could be got from home in
sufficient quantity to accept them, and it is obvious that
only the best men, with some first-hand knowledge of
Indian conditions, will be able to hold them.

It is gratifying to see that the former scheme providing
for Members of Council without portfolio is not to be
adhered to, and, instead, the Governors Executive Council
will remain as at present constituted, while arrangements
will be made for the introduction of not more than two
persons with special knowledge of any particular measure
before the Legislative Council, at which their presence will
be necessary, who will be nominated members of that
Council so long as the measure is before it. But it is
somewhat difficult to understand why a Governor should
not be a member of his own Legislative Council, unless it
be because, after four years’ time, the Council is to elect its
own President. It is impossible to avoid comparing future
Provincial Governments with the spectacle, so often seen
in India, of two mules drawing a cart, and each of them
pushing outwards !

The sizes of the Legislative Councils are detailed in a
schedule, and the principle is laid down that at least 70 per
cent, of the members are to be elected, and not more than
20 per cent, are to be officials. Any ruler or subject of a
Native State may be nominated to a seat on the Councils, but

21

The Government of India Bill

it is unlikely that any ruler, anyhow, will hanker after the
honour, which would be laying himself open to all sorts of
attacks, permissible under the right of free speech. Officials
are debarred from election, which seems to be a pity.

“ Essential ” legislation has been greatly simplified in the
Bill, and instead of the proposed system of Grand Com-
mittees the Governor is to have the power of proceeding
by ordinance when necessary.

Considerable alteration has been made in the proposals
regarding the Government of India. The Council of State
is to be composed of sixty, instead of fifty, members, of
whom not more than twenty are to be officials, in place of
twenty-five as proposed. The composition of the Legislative
Assembly is also increased from ioo to 140 members, and
of these forty are to be nominated and twenty-six only are
to be officials. There will be power to increase the numbers
constituting the Assembly, but five-sevenths at least of the
total numbers have to be elected, and of the remainder at
least one-third are to be non-officials. The elected members
are to be by direct election, and not indirectly through the
Provincial Legislative Councils.

The Viceroy's Executive Council is to be as now con-
stituted, but with a minimum of three non-official Indians.
There is also one legal member, and the Viceroy’s “majority”
does not appear to be at all sufficient. Members of the
Executive Council may only be members of one of the two
“houses.” We fail to see why this curtailment of privilege
is made. There is very little fear of a member dominating
either “house”; possibly the idea of a man having a
perverse influence in both was too much for the Joint
Committee. The President of the Legislative Assembly is
to be selected by the Governor-General for four years, and
after that time he will hold office by election of the Assembly.
Finally, a native ruler or subject may become a member of
either “house.” It is unlikely that many such subjects
will secure a majority of electors’ votes in British India,

22 The Government of India Bill

and a ruler will probably be contented with his seat or
representation in the Council of Princes

As was foreshadowed education is to be one of the
“transferred subjects of provincial administration, and it
is observed that Chiefs’ colleges are to be included If this
refers to the seminaries at Indore, Rajkot and Ajmer, there
is likely to be much opposition on the part of the Ruling
Princes and Chiefs, for the benefit of whose sons and
families the colleges are maintained Medical administra-
tion becomes “ transferred/ and so do public health and
sanitation. Agriculture, also, is to become the sport of the
electors, although it is likely that the agriculturist would far
rather have things as they are But the * ryot,” the back-
bone of India, is unfortunately too ignorant to agitate against
the clamour of which the Bill is a result, and only when it
is too late will he realise the change that will have come
upon him

The Native States have not found a place in the Bill,
and it would have been unnecessary to have placed the
proposals regarding them before the Houses of Parliament,
since the Viceroy and the Secretary of State have power to
carry them out without further reference Whether the
Ruling Princes and Chiefs will like the new order of things
remains to be seen Although not forming part of British
India, so called, they cannot help but be profoundly interested
in the methods and systems of government in Provinces
adjacent to their States, and the internal welfare of India as
a whole certainly affects them in no small degree That
the new scheme will increase and strengthen their ties with
the British Government and their attachment to the Throne
there can be no doubt, and as before in the past so again
tn the future we shall find them justifying Lord Chelmsford’s
description of them in 1916 as “the pillars of the Empire ”

It is very desirable that the new Bill should soon be
discussed in Parliament, but undue haste in rushing it
through the various stages until it becomes law is much to
be deprecated Before it is finally passed into law, some

The Government of India Bill

23

opportunity should be afforded for the consideration of
opinion from India upon it. Not that there is much likeli-
hood of any important change being effected. The work
of Mr. Montagu-cum- Joint Committee-cum- Indian Poli-
ticians is bound to come into being more or less in the form
in which it is now presented, and in the words of an Indian
poet, who flourished nearly 300 years ago,

“ If these three be of one mind,

Even the most powerful can avail nothing ”

(Mukteshwar).

24

SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR INDIA

Bv Sir Guilford L Molesworth, k.c.i.e

India piesents the strange spectacle of a country, formerly
rich, prosperous, and, in a manner, highly civilized, of which
the native industries are now decadent, having been crushed
out under the stress of modern civilization and progress
Of India’s population of 300,000,000 souls, about 60 per
cent are supported by agriculture. This leaves a large
residue a\ailablc for industrial purposes, but the arts and
crafts for which India has been so justly celebrated, whether
metallurgical or textile, whether cutlery, glass, pottery, silks,
or other mdustucs, are either dead or dying

Throughout may be found old slag heaps, testifying to
the former prosperity of native iron and steel industries,
the splendid native iron being superseded by cheap, worth-
less metal of foreign manufacture. Everywhere may be
seen evidence of flourishing industries of the past — in the
huge 40-ton brass gun of Bjjapur , in the great iron column
at the Kutub, in the magnificent inlaid marble of the Taj ;
in the beautiful can ing and fretwork of the tombs, mosques,
and other innumerable buildings. It may also be seen in
the glassware, potter) , shawls, carpets, and silks ; in the
treasuries of many of the Rajahs, and also in the ruins
of indigo factories India has untold wealth — wonderful
natural resources, mineral, agricultural, and industrial ; but
they are to a great extent dormant. It has coal of an
excellent quality . The coal-fields, so far as they have been
explored, extend over an area of 35,000 square miles, and
are estimated to contain 20,000,000,000 tons of coal. In
some cases the supply of iron ore is on a scale of unparalleled

Self-Government for India

25

magnitude, whole hills and ranges being of the purest variety.
It has chrome iron capable of making the finest “ Damascus
blades,” manganiferous ore, and splendid hematites in pro-
fusion ; it has gold, silver, antimony, manganese, copper,
tin, plumbago, mica, lime, kaolin, gypsum, asbestos, precious
stones, soft wheat equal to the finest Australian, hard wheat
equal to the finest Kabanka ; it has food grains of all kinds,
oil seeds, tobacco, tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, lac, spices, dyes,
cotton, jute, hemp, flax, coir, fibres of every description — in
fact, produce too numerous to mention. There are in India
millions of potential horse-power available, in the form
of water flowing from the mountain ranges, capable of being
converted into electrical energy, and conveyed with slight
loss to centres, even to great distances, where it can be
ultilised for industrial purposes.

The inhabitants of India are frugal, thrifty, industrious,
capable of great physical exertion, docile, easily taught,
capable in work requiring delicate manipulation. Labour
is absurdly cheap, and the soil, for the most part, wonder-
fully productive.

There is plenty of capital in India. The amount of
wealth now hoarded was estimated by Lord Curzon to be
about ^550,000,000; but neither this nor British capital
will flow to a market in which operations are paralyzed, and
struggling industries are swamped by unrestricted foreign
competition. British capital has, for the most part, been
attracted for railways or other Government works by guaran-
tees, and some of the manufactures, such as cotton and jute,
have flourished under British capital ; but it has been uphill
work, and the development of these industries falls far short
of the magnificent potentialities of the Empire, and is quite
incommensurate with the advantages that have been gained
by the policy of the Government of India in the extension
of railway and irrigation works, which has enabled the State
to relieve some of the weight of taxation that burdens the
agriculturists.

The Government of India has done its utmost to develop

26

Self-Government for India

the industries of India, but its efforts have been circum-
scribed by the intervention of the India Office under the
dictation of the Secretary of State Protection of the in-
dustries of India against the unrestricted import of bounty-
fed produce is absolutely necessary for their development.

In 1910 the Planters’ Association of South India passed
a resolution recommending an Imperial preferential duty
on coffee, tea, rubber, cinchona, cocoa, cotton, and wheat.
The native members of the Viceroys Legislative Council
have been persistent m their demands for protection The
Hon Mr. Dadabhoy said

“ There is a general feeling in favour of protection in
this country A judicious tariff is demanded by intelligent
public opinion in the interest of undeveloped industries ”

Many other members expressed themselves in a similar
strain, and the Secretary to the Government of India
admitted that, “ if they had a free hand, they might be
tempted to undertake a reform of the Indian tariff”, but
Lord Curzon said

“ In fiscal matters the Government of India has to take
the views of the Secretary of State whether it agrees with
them or not, and those views are more likely to be guided
and shaped in England than by purely Indian considera
tions In drawing up the despatch about the fiscal

future of India, we said to ourselves ‘What guarantee
shall we have, if any new system were proposed, that India
should have free speech in the discussion of the subject ”

The Secretary of State, however, not only refused to
grant protection, but even added further obstacles to the
development of Indian industry by employing an iniquitous
excise duty as an electioneering sop to various English
constituences Indian cotton was penalized by an excise
duty, as the Under-Secretary of State has admitted, “really
for the advantage of Lancashire .” Tobacco was penalized
to conciliate the cigarette-making constituency of Bristol.
Lord Lawrence’s successful railway policy was reversed to
conciliate English speculators Sugar was penalized to
gain the support of the Cocoa Press and the jam and

Self-Government for India 27

confectionery interest, on the eve of a bye-election. There
had been no previous debate on the subject in the House
of Commons, and it was by the arbitrary act of Mr. Asquith
that this deadly blow was struck at India's industry. In
the debate on the Sugar Duties Bill Lord Curzon said ;

“It is in the interest of India, and India alone, that this
legislation has been proposed by us. This decline in the
Indian industry, in which two millions of people are em-
ployed, and in which the annual loss has been estimated at
^*20,000,000 sterling, is due to the unrestricted competition
of a bounty -fed article. Now this is a state of affairs which
neither the Government, nor I, as the head of the Govern-
ment, can consistently accept.”

There exists a general feeling that India should have
some voice in shaping her own policy, especially her
industrial policy, and that her interests should not be
sacrificed to the exigencies of a narrow political party
of the mother-country. Of late years she has awakened
to the need of working out her own salvation by recon-
structing her lost indigenous industries and developing
new sources of trade.

Mr. Tata has made a new departure by successfully
organizing iron manufacture, on an extended scale, with the
aid of British capital ; and a most important movement has
taken place in the Industrial Conference held in Benares
in 1905. This movement, if carried on with the energy
and intelligence which has already characterized it, will
mark an epoch in the history of India’s progress towards
self-government.

Under the presidency of Mr. Dutt, twenty-two papers
were contributed by educated native gentlemen, and four-
teen by influential Englishmen well versed in Indian
matters. These papers teem with valuable suggestions
and recommendations, and the Government of India
welcomed “the awakening of interest in the important
questions which was evident in the discussion at the
Industrial Conference at Benares.”

Space will not admit of anything like a full description

28

Self-Government for India

of the details of these suggestions, but the more important
of them may be briefly summed up as follows :

r. To forward the "Swadeshi” movement, which aims
at the employment of indigenous, in preference to foreign,
manufactures.

2. To establish co-operative grain banks, urban banks on
the co-operative principle, or co-operative credit societies.

3. To improve the agricultural status by the regulation
of the land revenue, by relieving the indebtedness of the
ryots, by making advances for the purchase of seed, and
by the establishment of State experimental farms.

4. To develop India’s resources from within, pursuing
the policy indicated by Lord Curzon, in the creation of a
Board of Agriculture, a Board of Scientific Advice, a
Commercial and Industrial Bureau.

5. To institute a chemical and physical laboratory,
industrial schools, technical guilds, scholarships, and
apprenticeships for workshop training.

6. To relieve the dead weight of taxation by raising
revenue from moderate import duties, which will also
prevent the swamping of Indian industries by unlimited
foreign competition.

7. To foster international and inter-colonial trade by the
exchange of mutual concessions and preferential treatment
of the colonies and mother-country.

8. To establish State industries for the utilization of
native produce, and to obtain the best expert assistance
in working such industries.

9. To give greater facilities for obtaining concessions,
and for the acquirement of mining and other industrial
rights.

10. To pursue that policy of railway extension and
irrigation works which has been eminently successful in
increasing State revenues, and to promote trade by the
adoption of the lowest practicable railway rates.

11. To govern India in the interest of India alone, and
to resist the interference of the Home Government in any

Self-Government for India

29

attempt to sacrifice Indian interests to the exigences of
English party politics.

There was a general feeling at the conference that, in its
fiscal policy, the Government of India had not a free hand ;
that the interference of the India Office had forced upon it,
against its wishes and advice, measures highly detrimental,
and calculated to strangle Indian trade and industries; that
such measures were controlled by Lancashire rather than
by India; that Indian industries were discouraged; that
the export of Indian manufactures had been depressed
by prohibitive duties, and the import of English manu-
factures into India facilitated by the imposition of almost
nominal duties ; that excise duties were imposed on the mill
produce of India to secure the vote of Lancashire ; and that
this burden had been imposed in opposition to the advice
of the majority of the members of the Viceroy's Council.

All these opinions point to the need of self-government
by the Government of India.

It is necessary, however, in order to prevent misconcep-
tion, to explain that the so-called democracy which is now
being forced on India is not self-government in any sense,
but the reverse of it, as past experience has shown.

Twenty-three years ago Lecky sounded a warning
against the danger of democracy for India. After pointing
out that in the opinion of the best judges a system that
would bring to the forefront the natives of Bengal to the
detriment of the old governing races of India, and of the
strong warlike populations of the North, would be the sure
precursor of disaster, he said :

“The great danger that menaces India is to be found
neither at Calcutta nor at St. Petersburg, but at West-
minster. ... It is to be found in the introduction into
India of modes and maxims of government borrowed from
modern European democracies, and utterly unsuited to an
Oriental people. It is to be found in acts of injustice perpe-
trated by Parliament in obedience to party motives and to
the pressure of local interests. Still graver in its probable

30

Self-Government for India

effects was the policy which forbade India, in a time of deep
financial distress, to raise a revenue by import duties on
English cotton, in accordance with the almost unanimous
desire of her administrators and her educated public
opinion . . If the opinions of English administrators
in India or of Indian administrators at home had been
taken, such duties would have been imposed ; but votes
might have been lost, an agitation might have been
raised in England, and both parties feared to run the risk.”
(“Democracy and Liberty,” vol i , p. 207 )

The following lessons of history may also be quoted :

“Of all tyrannies the worst is the rule by the people”
(Aristotle).

“ Invariably in civil contests it was found at Athens the
worst and most abandoned public characters obtained the
ascendancy” (Thucydides)

“The Egestas cupida novarum rerum was the most pro-
lific source of the evils which first undermined and lastly
overthrew the foundations of Roman liberty” (Sallust).

Livy has described “the vacillation and tyranny of
popular assemblies, and the cruel tyranny which the triumph
of democracy brought on the Roman Commonwealth.”

“ Democracy is not the government of the few by the
many, but the many by the few. The few who are thus
raised to power are the most dangerous and worthless
of the community” (Pitt).

"A tendency to democracy does not mean a tendency to
parliamentary government or even a tendency to greater
liberty On the contrary, strong arguments may be ad-
duced, both from history and from the nature of things, to
show that democracy may often prove the direct opposite
of liberty In ancient Rome the old aristocratic government
was gradually transformed into democracy, and it passed
speedily into an imperial despotism. In France a corre-
sponding change has more than once taken place” (Lecky).

The only practical form of self-government can be by the
agency of the Governor-General in Council, or, in other
words, by the Government of India with a free hand,
relieved from the baneful interference of the India Office.

To carry out such a policy the Government of India

Self Government for India 31

should be invested with a written Constitution , based on
principles of good government, justice freedom, liberty and
purity, somewhat similar to those which exist in the United
States, in Canada, in Australia and in the Cape Colony
but modified so as to be suitable to the special conditions
of the natives of India Under such a Constitution the
liberty and rights of the people are safeguarded, and the
power of both the Upper and Lower Chambers is restricted
under the protection of a Supreme Court of Judicature,
which has the right of authoritatively interpreting the
written Constitution and declaring null and void any Act
contrary to the spirit of it that may have been passed by
either of the Chambers The aim of such a Constitution
would be to divide and restrict power to check the appetite
for organic change to preserve freedom of contract to guard
against the tyranny of the majority and to ensure a spirit
of sober and sensible freedom

Under such a Constitution, the Upper Chamber should
consist of the Governor General in Council as at present
constituted, and the Lower Chamber composed of a work
able number of delegates — say not exceeding fifty — of
Europeans and Indians in equal number, representing the
various provinces of the Indian Empire

The Government of India has, in the past, fully proved
its fitness to govern India, and the Indian official stands
out in favourable contrast to the average British Member
of Parliament, who as a rule, is absolutely deficient in every
qualification for sensible or sound administration
Mill has rightly said

“ The British Government of India is not only the purest
m intention, but one of the most beneficial in act ever
known ’

Personally I may say

My long and intimate connection with the Government
of India extending over eighteen years, enables me to
confirm in the strongest manner possible the opinion ex
pressed by Mill

32

Self-Government for India

Lord Curzon has paid a just tribute to the Indian
Covenanted Civilians, attributing to them :

lt A sense of responsibility and devotion to duty, a love
of the country and sympathy with its people, developed to
a degree that is without parallel in the history of any other
country."

Arminius Vambery, the celebrated traveller, in a letter to
an influential native in Bengal, wrote :

“ I am not an Englishman, and I do not ignore the
shortcomings of English rule in India; but I have seen
much of the world both in Europe and Asia, and studied
the matter carefully, and I can assure you that England is
far in advance of the rest of Europe in point of justice,
liberality, and fair-dealing with all entrusted to her care."

A Government formed on such lines and with such
materials would be the most perfect Government in the
world.

33

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE
“DRAIN” IN INDIA

By W. H. Moreland

Our Indian visitors have not been idle, and during the last
few months select audiences in the metropolis, and still
more in the provinces, have been told a great deal about
India's condition and aspirations I have not, unfortunately,
been able to hear any of the speeches, but I have read
a number of friendly reports, and I have been very much
struck by the amount of attention paid to economic
questions. I am far from blaming the speakers, who
doubtless chose the topics to appeal to their audience, but
I have sometimes wished that a Tagore had Leen among
them to expound to the workaday West the spiritual lessons
which India has to teach, and her historic contempt for
such trifles as food and clothes However, I am concerned
with what was said, not with what remained unspoken ,
economic topics were the staple of many of the speeches,
and among these topics the Drain inevitably took a
prominent place I have not noticed that its nature and its
operation were clearly explained, but there again the
composition of the audience was probably decisive, and the
picture was characterized by vivid colour with strong light
and shade rather than by any meticulous attention to detail.
What effect it produced on the audiences I do not know,
but the series of reports sent me back to some half-forgotten
blue-books, just to see how it came about that India has
survived this “ outpouring of her life-blood , there are
masses of figures bearing on the question, and they are
accessible to everyone for a very few shillings, but their
detailed study is a little tedious, and perhaps it will save
vol. xvi. c

34 Some Thoughts about the “Drain" in India

other people some trouble if I put down as shortly as
possible the broad results, and add a few suggestions which
have occurred to me.

In order to get at the facts regarding the Drain, one
must go back to the years before the war; the burden of
current complaints is that the Drain has become a normal
feature of the position under British rule, and the last five
years have been very far from normal. The few figures I
shall give are averages based on the three years from
April, 1910, to March, 1913, a period when things were
running their ordinary course, when trade was not
restricted or controlled, and when fifteen rupees were
equivalent to the pound sterling ; the quantities to be
considered are so large that it suffices to talk in millions of
pounds (^m.), and lesser sums can be neglected without
affecting the course of the argument. In order to see
whether a Drain exists, we look first of all at the statistics
of trade, which show what useful things a country has
sent out and what other useful things she has received in
their place, and we find that at the period stated India
sold in the course of a year things worth ,£m. 152, and
bought things worth 99, so that she stood to receive

53 on balance; if she got good value in other ways
for this sum, then there was no Drain, and if there was a
Drain, its amount will be indicated by the deficiency in
good value which she received. Quite a large number of
items go to make up the balance-sheet of India’s transactions
with the rest of the world, which shows what value was
received for her exports, but two of them are so much
larger than the others that for plain people they make the
whole matter clear, and leaving the smaller items on both
sides out of account, we may say that against the 53
of surplus exports, India received over 28 in gold and
silver, while nearly jTm. 26 were paid into her account with
the Secretary of State, and spent by him on her behalf.
The question, then, is whether she got good value under
each of these heads.

Some Thoughts about the “ Dram in India 35

Taking the gold and silver first, there is no doubt that
from a commercial point of view the transaction was fair,
that is to say, the market value of the coins and bullion is
correctly shown Nevertheless, l entirely deny that India
got “ good value ” under this head, and I class from 20
upwards of this gold and silver as a Drain on her material
resources The quantity of these metals which is put to
useful purposes in India is very small , the bulk of both lies
useless, or at most ministers to the vanity of the people ,
yet in order to obtain them, India has given useful things
like grain and oilseeds, or cotton and jute, some of which
she could have used for herself, while the lest could have
been exchanged for things which would have helped to
increase the real income of the people India is a poor
country, but she clings to this old economic vice, she
literally gives bread for stones, and poor she will remain
until she acquires thriftier habits, and learns to in\est her
surplus products in more remunerative ways It may, of
course, be argued that India has a right to remain poor if
she chooses, though this line does not seem to have beeq
taken m England , but there is another side to the
question, for these stocks of gold and silver a>*e the principal
incentives to crime, and the country would have far fewer
thieves, and consequently far fewer policemen, if the
people would change their habits in this respect Almost
every week I read some story in the Indian papers which
brings out this aspect of the question now it is a frail old
lady, burnt with hot irons until she gives up her cherished
store of jewellery now it is a strong man hacked to pieces
in defence of what he values more than life , or, most
piteous tragedy of all, some innocent child strangled for the
sake of the paltry ornaments worn to gratify his mother’s
thoughtless vanity. There, indeed, you have a Dram of
India’s life-blood

Perhaps it may be said that the quantity of gold and
silver imported on balance is not great enough to make a
material difference The annual sum works out at

36 Some Thoughts about the “Dram” tn India

is 9^d per head of the population , the burden of Indian
taxation (in the strict sense) was at the same period 2s od.
per head, and I have seen many assertions that taxation is
so heavy as to cripple the energies of the country. If
2S od is crushing, is 9^d is not light Again, the
absorption of gold alone totalled ^m. 191 in the forty years
ending in 1913 and in that year the total of India’s oft-
denounced sterling debt was £m 183 , if India had chosen
to pay her sterling debts instead of buying useless gold, she
could have cleared them off in this period without taking
silver into consideration Tried by such tests as these, this
Drain of useful things given for the precious metals stands
out as a serious economic evil , its continuance undoubtedly
means that the country is much poorer than it need be,
while the results in social life are all bad, and some of
them are hideous

Next let us see whether India got better value for the
26 which was paid yearly into her account in
London The details published regarding the expenditure
of this sum are so full as to be wearying, but eliminating
cross entries and keeping to the important items, we find
that over /m 1 was spent on stores for India, about
15 on railwajs and canals, and about ^m 10
on defence and administration There is no doubt that
India got full value for the stores, one can wish it had
been possible to buy more of them in the country, but of
thi value there can be no question The money spent on
railways and canals went partly in buying out private
owners, partly m paying interest on capital, and partly in
providing new equipment I know some Indians have
argued that the railways have done harm, but these
gf ntlemen must now be classed as back numbers , the
peasants are getting votes, and, when they take charge,
the) will insist on more canals and more railways to an
extent which I fear may sometimes embarrass their elected
representatives Meanwhile, India has acquired property
m canals and railways, which already yields several

Some Thoughts about the "Drain” in India 37

millions a year after interest and all other charges have
been paid, and which will presently make her the envy
of the civilized world As regards the cost of defence and
administration, it is possible to point to an item here,
and another there, which might conceivably be somewhat
reduced, but against these must be set the broad fact that
nothing is charged for the world-wide services of the Navy
what value should be set on that item I have no very precise
idea, but it is certainly far above the total of all disputable
charges actually made, and I am quite sure that if the
account were submitted to a jury of international financiers
drawn say from France, Brazil, and Japan, the verdict
would be that India gets her national existence ridiculously
cheap

Such, then, are the facts India gets exceedingly good
value for the money spent abroad, but she loses heavily by
the import of gold and silver on which her people insist ,
and a financier might be tempted to ask why Indian critics
concentrate on the first item, and have nothing whatever
to say about the second The answer I should give to
this question is that the money spent abroad does in fact
represent a sentimental, though not a material, Drain , in
a word, it hurts It involves a drain on India s newly-
found self-respect, an immense national asset, though its
value cannot be shown in the country’s balance-sheet
Young India is not really interested in knowing whether
she gets good value or not , confident of her own efficiency
she objects to the existence of these payments as a whole
Now just because this national self-respect is a new growth
and not as yet firmly rooted in the past, it overlooks certain
material factors , the hard truth is that India makes pay-
ments to foreigners to secure her national existence solely
by reason of her secular national inefficiency I call this a
hard truth, because I have noticed that Indians are inclined
to pass it by, and glory in the political and administrative
system of the distant past That system had many
admirable features, but it was vitiated by one fatal flaw — it

38 Some Thoughts about the “Drain” in India

failed to provide security for the national existence, and
for a thousand years, at any rate, India lay open by land
and sea Everyone knows, or should know, what happened
on land from Muhammad bin Kasim to Mahmud of
Ghazni, from Mahmud to Babur, from Babur to Nadir
Shah, anyone who chose might come into India, to slay
and loot and burn , and India’s neighbours still hold to the
tradition as we saw last spring. It was not a question of
greater force Babur won his Empire with probably less
than 8000 men at a time when India counted her
troops by lakhs it was national inefficiency, nothing more
nor less The story of the coast is less generally known,
but there is abundant evidence that throughout this period
every harbour, from Lahari Bandar on the Indus round to
distant Chittagong, could be seized, or sacked, or burnt,
by any sea-rover who came along Such things do not
happen now, and these annual payments indicate the
reason win

These facts are unpalatable, but they are relevant and
important Their lesson is simply that India must make
herself efficient in order to maintain her self-respect, and at
the present time her business-management falls very far
short of efficiency The Drain of bread for stones must be
stopped before she can fully make good, and her people
must learn to invest their surplus m productive work This
doctrine is of course not new, but the point I wish to urge
on Indian leaders just now is that the two Drains, the
material and the sentimental, are very closely interconnected ,
every reduction in the import of useless gold and silver can
operate to reduce the volume of payments made abroad,
and a united and sustained movement would very soon
bring these payments down to an inconsiderable sum Let
me offer the outline of a programme for action, which will
make this point clear

1. Support the rupee loans, so that there may never
again be any question of borrowing abroad for railways,
canals, or other needs It used to be thought that India

Some Thoughts about the “Dram" m India 39

could find only three or four crores yearly for such purposes ,
that idea has been disproved by recent experience, and
with the help ol a strong political lead, such as has not yet
been forthcoming, India could go ahead in a way that has
been impossible in the past without incurring liabilities for
paying interest abroad

2 Teach the people to choose their investments more
wisely than they are doing now, so that capital may flow
freely into essential industries in the hands of men who can
be trusted Steel rails can now be made in India, and that
fact alone reduces payments made abroad , but much more
steel is, or will soon be, wanted Make your own rail* ,
build your own wagons , go on presently to locomotives ,
build ships, make chemicals, find money to provide all the
imported goods which India can profitably produce, and so
reduce the volume of foreign payments which you dislike
so much

3 If there is money left after providing for these needs,
buy up your foreign debt, as Japan has lately done
Import the sterling loans instead of gold or silver and get
the interest paid in the country , they are cheap just
now and exchange is high, so that the £m. 28 spent
annually on useless metals would bring the whole foreign
debt home in a very few years

4 In order to finance these new activities get the people
to diminish their demand for gold and silver, and to bring
out what is now lying idle I know this will be hard,
for the habit of absorption is of old standing , but it is the
leaders’ privilege to lead, and at the present juncture there
is no work better worth doing than to reduce steadily the
volume of the material Dram, and thereby dimmish the
Dram on the national self-respect

Finally let me recall an almost forgotten incident of
Indian history. When a certain Portuguese Governor
found himself urgently in need of a loan for capital-develop-
ment, and appealed to the citizens of Goa, it was the ladies
who took the lead, and while they sent their husbands to

40 Some Thoughts about the “Drain” in India

subscribe according to their means, they hastened to devote
their jewellery to the same purpose, taking the bracelets
from their arms, the necklaces from their necks, even the
rings from their fingers, till the sum needed was more than
made up. For myself, I entirely refuse to believe that, if
the need be once made clear, the patriotism of Indian ladies
will fall below the standard set at Goa in the sixteenth
century.

4i

AGRARIAN INDEBTEDNESS

By H. A. Rose, i.c.s. (ret.)

The topic of agrarian indebtedness has exercised adminis-
trators from the times of Solon and the Gracchi to that of
Sir Denzil Ibbetson in our own day. In various parts of
India the condition of the peasantry and their revolts
against economic oppression have compelled the Govern-
ment of India to pass special Acts, such as the Agricul-
turists’ Relief Act for the Deccan and the Alienation of
Land Act for the Punjab. In the latter province things
were very bad in 1886, when Mr. S. S. Thorburn wrote
his “ Musalmans and Money-Lenders in the Punjab ”
(Blackwood). Mr. Thorburn was accused of much over-
statement, but a re-perusal of his work now will convince
anyone acquainted with the facts that so far from exaggerat-
ing the evil he underrated it, and his only error was in
treating the question as one between the Moslem culti-
vators and their creditors, whereas it is one between the
capitalist lender, who is occasionally himself an agricul-
turist, and the embarrassed cultivator, whether he be
owner, occupancy tenant, or merely a tenant without fixity
of tenure, and whether he be Musalman, Hindu, or Sikh.
Mr. Thorburn’s work, however, contains so much material
of value that it can still be read with profit. It has never
been superseded, and it should be studied by all who wish
to try and realize how electoral powers are likely to be
used in India, and what the position of the Indian
proletariat would be if the money-lending classes secured
an alliance with the lawyers, combining with them against
the peasantry. Since the war began there have been
risings of a more or less serious character in the Punjab.

42

Agrarian Indebtedness

That of the south-west of the province in 1914 was
essentially an agrarian jacquerie , a revolt of the Musulman
peasants and workers directed not against British rule but
against the Hindu money lender The recent movements
seem to have had something of the same character, to
judge from their objectives and localities

How did matters drift into this pass ? We may cite
Thorburn “ Having annexed the Punjab we over assessed
it on the basis of its old Sikh exactions ’ This was
promptly remedied We then proceeded (in a very
characteristic way) to do two things at once, and conduct a
‘ regular settlement of each district That term always
puzzles English readers, as well it may do The object of
such a settlement was partly fiscal, but chiefly the prepara-
tion of what is called the record of rights — 1 e , tenures of
every description were investigated, determined, and
recorded, says Thorburn Now it may be possible to
conduct a great fiscal survey and a judicial enquUe
simultaneously, but unless the two objectives are each kept
clearly in view, the result is like to be disastrous to both
Thorburn exposed the failure of the judicial settlement
He also pointed out the economic result of the “settle-
ments/ which was to ‘ largely appreciate the market value
of land and the credit of those whose titles to marketable
interests had been established ’ Finally he condemned
the fiscal error of excessive rigidity in assessments, attribut-
ing peasant indebtedness largely to it, but observing that
“ no disastrous consequences would have ensued had we
not also at the same time converted collective into in-
dividual ownership of land plus the right to alienate it at
pleasure ” A combined fiscal and judicial operation, with
a double objective, had led to a new economic problem.
That problem was never studied systematically or scientific-
ally Fiscal emollients have been applied, as by sub-
stituting fluctuating for fixed assessments Economically,
the clumsy, though inevitable, remedy of restricting aliena-
tion of agricultural land has been applied. But the Punjab

Agrarian Indebtedness

43

peasantry remains in debt. It has not only failed to
recover from the indebtedness (surely not heavy) incurred
in our early over-assessments, but has sunk deeper into the
quicksands of insolvency. We must go back to our
"settlements ” again in the search for a cause.

As is not unusual in English, the term "settlement ” was
apparently chosen because that operation left everything it
touched unsettled. This is no disparagement of the
earliest settlement officers. The adjudication by them of
millions of disputes as to title was a fine achievement, but
the judicial quality of their work was never recognized.
A Settlement Collector used no doubt to be invested with
formal judicial powers, and exercise them to a limited
extent. But he decided a vastly greater number of dis-
putes about land informally in preparing his record of
rights. Unfortunately, we refused to make that record
proof of title. Even when “sanctioned” by Government
(or in better English confirmed by it) it only got a
presumption of correctness, and so could always be
questioned in a regular civil court. This gave the ball of
litigation a good start. The Settlement Officers also
compiled district codes of custom and village memoranda
on usages — compilations often admirably done and even
when brief or incomplete based on an intimate knowledge
of what the people really did and really wanted in the
whole gamut of their affairs, from marriage and inheritance
down to rights in water and the village trees. To these
codes nothing was given, not even a presumption of
correctness, and they have been an object of consistent
hostility to the legal profession. The cost of their compila-
tion was wasted. The most fruitful labours of the Settle-
ment Collector were sterilized, as nothing he had done was
final. Even in his fiscal functions the demand fixed by
him was always, in theory at least, elastic, and now that it

* Officialdom has always been strangely reluctant to acknowledge that
the work of a settlement was far more judicial than fiscal, or to recognize
the great qualities displayed as practical, though unavowed and non-
technical, judges by the earlier Settlement Collectors.

44

Agrarian Indebtedness

is so largely fluctuating, his “settlement 1 ’ can only be
described as unsettling. Our policy may be described as
one of alternating currents. For about one year in three*
a district goes through the crisis of a “settlement/* which
fixes its revenue demand in a certain sense, and wakes
a good many sleeping dogs when the record of rights is
revised in the quasi-judicial enquite as to titles, boundaries,
etc. For the remaining two-thirds of its existence it is left
severely alone, to settle its disputes by litigation. Every
settlement discloses more agrarian debt, more expropria-
tion of the peasantry, and greater need for economic
reconstruction.

The work of the Settlement Officer, depreciated as it has
been in the past by timorous refusals to give it finality,
forms an admirable basis for such reconstruction. By
making the individual holder full proprietor of his land
we gave him a free gift of capital. But that capital was
not in a liquid form. He ought, of course, to have saved
money, but he had excuses for not having done so. If he
had kept out of debt during Sikh rule he had seldom saved
under it. Our over-assessments after annexation did not
facilitate thrift. Probably then a general resort to borrowed
capital was inevitable, and perhaps a necessary comple-
ment to our gift. But whence was it to be obtained ?
The answer is, from the money-lender and no one else.
We made no attempt to carry on the settlement’s work to
its logical economical conclusion and organize the supply of
capital to the newly created owner. Within limits, up to
the value of his holding, homestead, and stock, he had
magnificent security to offer. Organized capital would
have lent him money at 6 per cent, or possibly less, on the
security of his land, at any rate. The money-lender lent
it him at rates which we dare not state, but which have
been often described.!

* The last Settlement Officer of Jhelum informed me that this was the
figure for that district.

t Eg. Thorburn, op. cit ., p. 169 ff., where various authorities are
quoted.

45

Agrarian Indebtedness

We now come to a most difficult task, that of endeavour-
ing to discover and indicate the causes of agrarian in-
debtedness and insolvency. Three schools of official
opinion exist. One, a little out of date, regards the money-
lender as an evil, the second opines that the law must take
its course, favours laissez-faire and the elimination of the
unfit, while the third, the largest and most judicious, thinks
there is a great deal to be said on both sides and, more
Britannico y deprecates drastic action, disbelieves unpleasant
facts, and postpones effective action till the last moment
has gone by. This last school accounts for the meander-
ing course of economic policy pursued in the past.
Economic laws are absolute and seemingly inexorable in
their working, but this truism exponents of “wait and see”
will not recognize or admit

In economic law a man with good security to offer ought
to be able to borrow money on that security at low interest,
especially if he will mortgage or pawn that security. But
our courts have entirely failed to recognize this axiom or
to give effect to it. Hence it is common to find secured
debts bearing high interest — at a rate equal to that charged
on unsecured debts. Many decisions entitle the courts to
go into the terms of a bond and cut down unconscionable
interest, but not one is known to the present writer which
differentiates between secured and unsecured debts. The
money-lender is equally undiscriminating, and who shall
blame him for his lack of economic learning ? As long as
he can get high interest on both kinds of advance he would
be a fool to reduce it on such as are well secured. The
most enlightened money-lenders, however, seem, to do them
justice, quite innocent of the distinction.* The cultivator
has no inkling of it.

But security may be general and not particular. A land-
owner may incur unsecured debts and his creditor may

* This was certainly the case in the part in which the present writer last
served— a fertile agricultural district with much indebtedness. The money-
lenders as a body did not know what a “ secured " debt was;

46 Agrarian Indebtedness

think his money safe because he can bring all his property
to sale Indeed in early days our courts sold land to
realize decreed debts freely (and probably much too freely),
so various enactments were passed to “protect” the
embarrassed land owner But economic laws being in-
exorable, this action struck a severe blow at agricultural
credit in general The law had not forbidden lending It
had never warned the lender that he could not lend with
any safety except on a mortgage Then when he had lent,
much too freely no doubt and at usurious rates, the
executive authorities intervened and often refused to allow
his debtors land to be sold It is submitted that in this
matter executive action was not guided by any economic
princioles whatsoever If it had been it would have
enunciated some such rules as these “ The courts decree
interest as on unsecured debts against owners of land
They may be bound to do so but we are guardians of
equity and if, by allowing land to be sold to satisfy such
decrees wc virtually do what the lender neglected to do
for himself — i c , insist on his getting security — if, then,
we turn his unsecured debt into a secured one, we must,
as an equitable set-off reduce his usurious rate to a
fair economic rate. And in some cases we may go farther
and look into the origin of the debt, its history, necessity,
and its terms as to compound interest But having cut
down the interest and ascertained what is fairly due to the
creditor we must see that he gets it — and allow the sale of
sufficient land to meet his debt as we have assessed it
But too often sale was peremptorily disallowed in toto, and
thenceforward the money-lender had a grievance. He
lost both principal and interest By a law of economic
human nature he raised his rates or kept them up against
his agricultural clientele in the lump

But the Legislature did not stop at protecting land from
seizure in execution of money decrees. It also exempted
artisans tools, the peasants’ stock, and so on — and very
rightly so Thenceforward the lender knew that he could

Agrarian Indebtedness

47

not look to plough-cattle, for Instance, as any sort of security
for his advances — or rather he should have known it. But
now the courts come in. It is, we are told, their duty to
administer the law — but with an important qualification :
the litigant who invokes any protective provision of law
must appear in court and plead it. Very quickly the
money-lender seized on his advantage. He will attach a
debtor’s plough-cattle, timing the operation just when they
were most wanted for ploughing. The cultivators only
remedy is to go to the court — which may mean a trudge of
fifty miles or more — and claim their release. That claim
has to be heard, and by the time it is decided (in his favour)
the time for ploughing has passed, and the cattle, whose
condition does not seem to improve during the spell of
enforced rest, are returned to him/

What remedies have been tried or can be suggested for
a long-admitted evil which affects all agricultural India in
a greater or less degree ? We have the Co-operative
Credit movement, admirable in intention and hopeful in
a limited field. Yet surely its very name is unfortunate if
it implies that it is solely destined to expand agricultural
credit and not diminish agrarian insolvency. All credit, co-
operative or individual, must in the last resort be based
on security.l The borrower’s integrity is no doubt an

* It has been held that a court must not, propno motu, refuse to attach
a cultivator’s plough cattle, even though it knows that they are exempted
from attachment It must effect the attachment, and let the cultivator
apply for their release Judicial “ principles,” it is to be feared, are not
unlike amateur strategy m that they are inclined to ignore such humdrum
considerations as time, distance, and the breakdown of human nature
under temptation. It is a fallacy to imagine that formal, tangible security
is always the most effective. A Government servant may not be able to
hypothecate his salary as security, but it is against the rules to get heavily
into debt. Hence, as m cases in the writer’s experience, the threat of a
complaint to the head of an office may be more pro^table to an usurer than
a legally secured debt. The lender, of course, finds his real security, not in
the law, but m the Government rules regarding indebtedness and bank-
ruptcy among its employes.

t Co-operative Societies in India seem to have discovered this, and to
be obtaining mortgages of land as collateral security for advances. The

48

Agrarian Indebtedness

asset, but when a debtor is insolvent it is not one that
can be realized. Insolvency, agrarian as much as com-
mercial, must be dealt with by the courts of bankruptcy.
A far wider problem is to prevent its increase and to
insure its arrest ; a large measure of legal reform, both in
procedure and substantive equity, is necessary. And this
must be accompanied by a widespread education of the
judiciary, the money-lender, and the land-owner, in economic
law. The courts have to realize that law is, in Della
Croce’s phrase, “a function of economics.” The money-
lender has to realize that the cultivator is a goose who lays
golden eggs and that, on a long view, it is a mistake to kill
him. Our schools might well teach the elementary rule
that lending on good security at low interest is more
profitable than making prodigal advances at usurious rates
without it. The landholder ought to be taught, with the
three R’s, that while it is legitimate to finance his trade on
borrowed capital, it is courting disaster to raise money at
usurious rates for such unproductive purposes as fire-
works at weddings. But no legal reform in India can
ever be really effective until she has her own Supreme
Court in India to standardize judicial policy and raise
the ra/ioncs decidendi to a higher plane. The greatest
peril to which the masses in India will be exposed under the
new regime will be a combine between the money-lender
and the less scrupulous type of pleader. Have any steps
been taken to protect the great body of small peasant
proprietors, and those who are dependent upon him,
against this danger? It does not seem so. The peril

Report of Sir Edward Maclagan's Committee on Co operation in India
(1915 — but only issued in 1919) contains some admirable observations on
this point See paragraphs 65 69, especially paragraph 66. Paragraph 69
exposes some of the complications which arise when alienation of land is
restricted. Ihe money-lender gets round such restrictions and loads his
rates of interest to cover the risks and expense of so doing But Co-
operative Banks cannot evade the law. It seems obvious, then, that
mortgages of agricultural land to such banks should be made legal, and as
cheap and simple as possible.

Agrarian Indebtedness

49

is a very real one, as experience shows. If the Indian
peasantry falls into economic servitude, loses its title in the
soil it has clung to through so many political vicissitudes,
what a field for Bolshevist propaganda it will present ! As
a corrective of legalism, a check on politico-economic log-
rolling, and a counterweight to the influence of the usurers,
a Court, placed as high above all extraneous currents as is
humanly possible, is essential if the new model is to
succeed. The Charter of such a Court should make it the
Supreme tribunal in every sense. It should vest it with
powers to make the judiciary administer the law and
prevent oppression under legal forms. It should be able to
instil it with courage and initiative. Its Charter should
entitle it to work with the Legislature, by freeing it from
the shackles of literal interpretation. It should not be
compelled to take its law from the advocate, because he
can cite precedent upon precedent, without regard to
reason and the well-being of the people, any more than it
should be constrained to delegate its function of finding on
the facts to the professional witness. Centuries ago an
acute jurist observed that the witnesses in a cause were
the real judges of all questions of fact — a somewhat
dangerous position, unless testimony is invariabiy truthful.
That may have been the law in medieval Europe, but the
time has gone by for law to exist as a thing apart from the
broader currents of national life. A Supreme Court should
be commissioned by its Charter as the Keeper of the King-
Emperor’s conscience. Without some such guardian we
may live to see India convulsed by a disastrous struggle
between her indebted millions and the monied classes we
have done so much to create. If it is true of European
countries that unrest is largely due to economic causes, it
is profoundly true of India.

VOL. XVI.

D

5 °

PROCEEDINGS OF THE EAST
INDIA ASSOCIATION

THE STUDY OF THE INDIAN VERNACULARS

By the Rev. A. Darby, m.a., b.d.

In the paper I am about to read, I propose to state, as
clearly as I can, the conclusions which a considerable and
somewhat peculiar experience of India has led me to form,
regarding the desirability of a better knowledge of the
vernaculars on the part of those who are called to work in
that country.

To an audience of this kind it is unnecessary to labour
the point that the supreme need of the present time in
India is the cultivation of more sympathetic relations with
its people ; but it is, I think, still necessary to affirm,
repeatedly and emphatically, that such relations can be
established only through such a knowledge of the languages
as will render possible first-hand and free intercourse with
the great mass of the people which knows nothing of
English.

English has become so generally the language of the
offices, and so many find employment which calls for the
use of no other, that there is considerable plausibility in the
assertion sometimes made, that a knowledge of the
vernaculars can be dispensed with. Before going on to
our main subject we must dispose of this contention.

Our reputation and influence in India most emphatically
do not depend upon the quality of our official output, nor
is the intercourse of an official with his subordinates of a
kind to call out much mutual regard. In spite of much

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars 5 1

talk about democracy, the vast majority of the popula-
tion is still at that stage where the personal note is
essential, and it is because we are looked upon as
little more than officials administering a soulless system
that our best work is unappreciated It is the senior
officials who find English sufficient for their needs, and
these are far outnumbered by those of junior grade, whose
work necessarily brings them into contact with men of
every class of Hindu society, most of whom know no
tongue but that in which they were born It is from the
impressions created by these latter that the popular estimate
is formed

The ordinary uneducated Hindu is a very tractable and
patient person, but the one thing he does greatly appreciate
is the opportunity to present his cause or trouble to the
official who has to deal with it and because the Indian
official is much better able to meet the people in this way,
he has a distinct advantage over the Englishman to set off
against a possible inferiority in some other direction One
has but to watch the anxious face of a rayat employing an
interpreter to speak for him, to see wdat harm is done
because he cannot be sure that his appeal has reached the
official ear in the form he thinks it ought to do The
exercise of a little courtesy and sympathy in such a case
means the creation of a feeling which spreads quickly
through a whole village and colours the sentiment of a
large number It may be said that the official cannot
and ought not to waste his time in listening to the
small matters humble petitioners wish to bring to his
notice, but this opinion seems to me to be hopelessly
wrong If the official is so much occupied with depart-
mental routine and the filling of Government files and
pigeon holes that he cannot keep in close touch with those
whose destinies he so largely controls , if he really cannot
find the time to hear the little plaints which, although they
seem trivial to himself, are of primary importance to those
who present them, then departmental work must be reduced

52 The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

and time must be found. We can better afford to fail
somewhat in departmental efficiency than to omit anything
which will give us a place in the hearts of the people.
The day when we can dispense with the personal relation
most emphatically has not yet come, and we are being
rudely awakened from the pleasant dream that single-
hearted and conscientious efforts to do our best for the
country must produce a grateful appreciation upon which
we should be able to rely in time of stress, and be our
security against the misrepresentations of the unkindly dis-
posed. It is ignorance of our true spirit which makes the
masses so ready to accept the false constructions put upon
our actions, and it is our own fault that they see but one
side of the matter.

Many things combine to make the old, more cordial
relations difficult to maintain in these days when there is
peculiar need that they should be maintained, and one of
the chief of these is the general low standard of linguistic
attainments. It is generally admitted that the acquirements
of missionaries in this direction are superior to those of
any other class of foreigners in India, and it would be
difficult to find a missionary of experience who did not
admit that his attainments were inadequate. We wonder
sometimes why we do not win our due meed of gratitude
for what we do or try to do ; we should not so wonder if
we realized that our imperfect knowledge of the vernaculars
is a perpetual source of irritation and misunderstanding.
Englishmen express their wants in terms which convey no
intelligible meaning to their hearers, and then are angry
because they are not properly understood by those who have
to trust to their wits to discover what it is that the sahib
is trying to say, and this goes on among a people who have
little to learn from anybody regarding what good manners
and courtesy demand. No official efficiency can counter-
balance the evil thus caused, and it is this which has led to
the verdict being given against us, in spite of the
good we have done. The fact that this verdict is

53

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

readily reversed in favour of those who are understood
and can approach the people in a sympathetic manner, is
sufficient proof of the truth of what I say. If we want to
understand India, we must be cautious of forming our
opinions from what the English-speaking portion of the
community tell us; if we wish Indians to believe that we
have their welfare at heart we must prove it by taking the
trouble to learn to talk to them. It may be laid down as
axiomatic that every foreigner in India should aim at the
highest possible attainments in the vernacular of those
among whom he works, and that no efforts should be
spared by those who have the direction of affairs to give
this aim the first place in the general policy. No officer is
truly efficient who cannot, if he wishes, dispense with
translators and interpreters, and who cannot, when called
upon, address a public audience in the vernacular. At
present one who can do this is looked upon as something
of a prodigy. We are approaching a time when personal
influence must largely take the place of Government orders,
and when the foreigner who is out of sympathy with the
aspirations of the people will find India uncongenial.
Judgments of the capacity of an Indian founded on what
he can do through the medium of English are very unfair
to him, for he is one man in English and another in the
vernacular. Never having realized how high must be the
attainments of those who claim to be truly efficient in a
foreign tongue, we do not realize what we have done in
trying to impart a sound education in the secondary schools
through the medium of English ; we cannot expect educa-
tion to be satisfactory when the time and energies of students
are mainly taken up with memorizing the expression in which
their studies are clothed. One outcome of the present
nationalist movement is a desire to return to the vernaculars
as the media of instruction, and this is a perfectly legitimate
desire, holding out promise of much good. Those who
take up educational work in the future will be called upon
to give themselves to the study of the vernaculars much

54

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

more seriously, and it seems to me to be quite evident that
to dispense with the services of Englishmen in the schools
would be a grave mistake, for it is in the schools and
colleges that the best opportunity for the cultivation of
sympathy between the two peoples ts found, and we have
lessons still to teach which the Indian needs to learn It
should hardly be necessary to say that those who cannot
speak the language of their pupils will not have much
influence over them

Another aspect of the subject may be touched upon
Our great asset in India is the belief that the Englishman,
according to his lights, is a just man , but against this has
to be set off the prevalent suspicion that the subordinates
in an office especially when the chief is ignorant of the
language and not likely to have access to first hand informa-
tion, are capable of giving things a turn to suit themselves ,
hence arises the impression that a lubricant administered
here and there may expedite matters I do not myself
think that this suspicion has so much real ground as is
often supposed but I am sure it exists, and it obviously
suits the convenience of some that it should exist Its main
support lies in the common impression that the official's
knowledge of the vernacular is not reliable In the time
that is coming, there is bound to be trouble in the offices
owing to the doubts other castes entertain of Brahmin
honesty of purpose It is well known how difficult it is for
a non-Brahmin to gain or retain a place in many offices,
and the dissatisfaction thence arising will increase as other
castes press for a share of the spoils of office, as they are
sure to do I speak as I do, not because I wish to criticize
the much maligned Brahmin or to add to the heavy burden
of unpopularity he has to bear, but because the suspicion is
a fact to be dealt with, and the Brahmins are as well aware
of it as anybody Proficiency in the vernaculars would not,
of course, entirely do away with this, but it is the best
corrective available, for it arouses the fear that the official
will learn more than is expedient of what goes on behind

55

The Study of the Indian Vernaculais

the scenes If he moves freely among the people he will
hear much that no one will dare to tell him in his office
It may seem that I have given undue prominence to this
part of my subject, but it is becoming more and more
evident to me that failure in the direction indicated has
been productive of more harm than is at all recognized,
and that if Englishmen in India had made it their first duty
to attain proficiency in the use of what, after all, is the real
instrument of go\ernment, the political movement of our
time would not ha\e assumed its present disagreeable form
Many unpleasant phenomena which are attributed to other
causes are really due to this We ha\e failed to commend
ourselves to the hearts of Indians because we have not kept
steadily before us the need of encouraging to the utmost
everything that would promote sy mpnthctic personal inter
course, and chief among these things is knowledge of the
vernaculars The tardy nature of our repentance detract?
from its value but better late thin never We must ask
the Indians to forgive us on the ground of our ignorance
What sort of a record have we in this matter ? It is not
my wish to criticize those to whom the onerous task of
governing India is committed but this paper would have
no justification if everything were for the best in thj< the
best of all possible worlds We hive governed India for
well over a hundred years India is a country of many
languages, and living intercourse with its people depends
upon capacity to meet them on their own ground 7 rue
statesmanship would have recognized the gravity of this
fact from the first, and have provided for it What sort of
provision has been made to ensure proficiency in the
handling of the indispensable instrument of government ?
There is no institution in India where students can find
the tuition they require , nothing has been done to train
teachers, and the old complaint, that the so called pandits
are inefficient teachers, is as true as ever Men landing in
the country are supposed to get up the languages in their
spare time, and the greater part of the remuneration they
f /\

56 The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

receive finds its way into the pockets of the teachers. The
examinations are taken after such a short period of study
that outsiders conclude either that the examinations are
very easy or that the new-comers are geniuses to a man.
The opinion widely prevails that the study of grammar —
the science of the most universal of all arts, and without
a sound knowledge of which real proficiency is impossible —
is for pedants only, and all discussions of method is thereby
vitiated. No organized attempt to provide the requisite
books has been made, with the consequence that this
work has been carried out by private enterprise on no
regular principles, and the students have had to do their
best with books which are defective in many ways, and do
not give him what he requires.

Whatever may have been the shortcomings of the past,
the time has come when the provision of a complete series
of suitable books should be taken in hand. Materials for
this work are now available. The labours of Sir George
Grierson and his assistants have made a general survey and
comparison of the languages possible ; a committee, over
which Professor Sonnenschein presides, is engaged in
reducing grammatical terminology to order; phonetics has
become an exact science ; educational methods and the
psychology of the intellect are understood as they never
were before. All this should be given practical application
and made available for popular use. When the right books
are provided we shall be surprised to see how much the
labour of students can be lightened by the employment of
sound methods of teaching and study.

A further factor in the problem has to be considered :
The greater vernaculars belong to one or another of two
main groups— the Aryan and the Dravidian — and a know-
ledge of one member of a family greatly assists to the
mastery of a second. The majority of those who work in
India find themselves called upon to learn more than one
language, and the affinity of the languages should be utilized

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars 57

as far as possible to facilitate the passage from one language
to another.

The prominent features of the books I contemplate would
be the following The terminology employed in them
should be the same throughout, and one order should be
preserved. They should combine a carefully thought-out
method with the grammar, and this method should be
devised with a view to producing the best ultimate result,
and not the superficial facility which deceives all but those
who know what the attainments must be before the student
can be considered proficient Theyshould provide abundant
and sensible exercises on every grammatical form, the scope
of the books should be restricted to the essential and the
practical , they should aim to impart such a knowledge
as will enable the student to express every thought in an
intelligible manner, but the view of the wood should not be
obscured by the thick trees of scholastic detail which the
advanced student can work out for himself if he desires
to do so

If the requisite unity is to be attained, the compilation of
such a series must be controlled by one mind, and that an
English mind, because an Englishman best knows the
wants and scholastic antecedents of Englishmen, and can
best tell where the linguistic shoe is likely to pinch The
only way in which one order can be preserved is by following
the eductional maxim of proceeding from the known to the
unknown, and making English sentence structure the basis
The controlling mind must be that of one who has a know-
ledge of the languages covered by the series , but it is, of
course, impossible for one man to be familiar with the
vocabularies of so many languages, and in no case is it safe
for a foreigner to dispense with the help of native experts,
however proficient he may be Competent assistants for
every language must therefore be engaged, but the control-
ling mind should have such a knowledge of the structure
and grammar of all the languages treated, and of the
characters employed in writing them, as to be able to check

58 The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

the work throughout, and to ensure an accurate present-
ment. He must also be prepared to familiarize himself
with all that has been done by scholars in various branches
of study adjacent to his special task, and to embody it in
the books. He must also be capable of expressing his
facts in a way to be easily and clearly understood, and the
work should not be considered complete until the books are
actually in the hands of the book-sellers. One need not
hesitate to say that it would be well worth while for the
Government to bear the whole cost of publication, and to
present copies to all bona-fide students.

This last remark may arouse someone to question my
sobriety of judgment : I ask him to refrain for a few minutes.
The reform which would be of more profit to India than
any other imaginable would be the adoption for use
throughout the country of a single alphabet based on the
Romanic. The economic, administrative, and educational
value of such a reform can hardly be over-estimated. The
present state of public feeling renders the introduction of
such an alphabet far more difficult than it would have been
fifty years ago, but its introduction is so highly desirable
that no effort to effect it should be spared, and ways and
means have to be discovered for giving the people of India
an opportunity of judging of its merits. The books advo-
cated would naturally employ one system of transliteration
throughout, and the use of these books would familiarize all
new-comers with it. Any expense incurred in this direction
would therefore be amply justified, to say nothing of the
great increase in interest which would result from a common
understanding of the nature of the native languages.

Now in the matter of a universal alphabet there is pre-
sented to us a choice from among several possible systems.
What is wanted is an alphabet which is as simple as possible
consistently with the ideal of a distinct and easily recog-
nizable symbol for every sound. It must lend itself to the
requirements of the printer’s art, be adaptable to typewriters
and type-casting machines, be easy to learn, and such that

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars 59

an equivalent script, both cursive and manuscript, and
displaying the essential qualities of rapidity and legibility,
may be formed from it I do not hesitate to say that these
requirements cannot be met by any system which involves
the free use of diacritical points While a particular system
is employed by scholars only, it does not matter much what
it is, so long as it is intelligible and consistent, but if an
alphabet is to come into general use, only the best is good
enough The system which at present enjoys some sort of
official approval is neither so well known or widely used
that its rejection need excite regret The only wise method
to employ in fashioning the alphabet of which we are in
search, is that which was followed by the Brahmins in
Southern India when they found that the Dravidians had
not sufficient signs to symbolize the Aryan sounds They
freely fashioned others of a character similar to those already
existing, and their example is the one to follow. The
system so strenuously advocated by the Rev J Knowles
follows this method, and is undoubtedly the best yet devised,
although it seems to need modification in a few points
The books I advocate would adopt this or some other
fashioned on similar lines

Since the question of a universal alphabet is one which
has aroused considerable interest, it will not be out of place
to mention other possible ways in which a start can be
made It is necessary to make it quite clear that there is
no intention to force upon Indians something unpalatable,
but to make it possible for them to see for themselves the
benefits which would accrue from its adoption The great
obstacle to be overcome is not absence of understanding of
its advantages, but the religious and patriotic sentiment
which attaches itself to the Devanagan and Arabic alpha-
bets This sentiment no doubt stands m the way of
progress, but it must be respected while its destruction
involves the happiness of the majority It is in the primary
schools that the reform is most needed, for it would be of
immense advantage if children could be taught to read and

6o

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

write by means of the simple and easy Romanic character,
leaving the vernacular character till a later stage. The
complicated vernacular characters are very difficult and the
drudgery entailed in learning them is calculated to damp
the ardour of the keenest child, and to deaden its mental
faculties from the start. A beginning could easily be made
in Christian schools, but in order that this may be possible,
the Government must be ready with its sanction. Class
books for the early standards must be provided, but this is a
very simple matter, and in many areas the number of pupils
in Christian schools is sufficient to make the provision of
such books a business proposition. Other literature in the
same character would naturally follow, for it is pretty
certain that when once acquired, its superiority to the
native character would ensure its continued use. Again,
considering the ease with which it can be learned, induce-
ments to voluntary study might well be forthcoming, even
in Government schools. It would be of great advantage if
its use for official documents and for office work could be
made compulsory, but the Government is the one body that
dare not make a move of this kind without encountering
abundant criticism and misrepresentation. Perhaps it is to
commercial houses that we must look for a real beginning.
The alphabet I should propose is so easy that, if correspon-
dence were actually written in it, it would be read by anyone
who knew English, even although he had never seen it
before, and no doubt, if a demand arose, type-writers would
soon supply the requisite machines. Again it would possibly
be practicable to use the alphabet for the telegraphic service.
At present the Roman alphabet is used and the risk of
mistake is great, owing to the absence of necessary signs.
It should be no great task to devise a code to suit the new
alphabet, and in using it the public would discover that
they had in their hands an instrument of no small value.
The number of those who can speak a language but cannot
communicate in writing with their friends in that language is
very great If the alphabet could once be brought into

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars 6 1

popular use the difficulty of learning a vernacular would be
greatly lessened, because the long labour of learning the
native characters would be done away with altogether.

Perhaps it will be well to notice, in connection with the
production of the series of grammars suggested, one some-
what curious fact. Although the majority of Indians would
certainly like to see the Englishman fluent in the vernacular,
and the Indian is usually conscious of being at a disadvantage
when he has to use English to express himself, yet there
undoubtedly exists among a certain section a sort of preju-
dice against a foreigner attempting to produce such books.
It is somewhat difficult to account for this ; in part it is due to
the great reverence in which Sanskrit is held, a reverence
which is a little shocked when methods other than the
traditional are employed ; in part it is due to the suggestion
of self-interest which prefers that the European should not
become too independent ; and in part to the implied sugges-
tion that Indians do not know their own language. Another
cause may be that they are unable to see that it is not
necessary that the writer should be able to speak the
language freely and correctly in order to be competent to
compile a grammar. If this opinion were correct we should
never have any suitable books at all. Whatever the causes
of the prejudices I mention may be, they must not be
seriously considered further than as an obstacle to be over-
come. It should be made quite clear that the books are
required for foreigners and in no sense intended to super-
sede the work of native scholars. These can decide for
themselves whether they will accept and utilize anything
they may find in them.

Having provided the requisite books we may consider
how they can best be utilized, and what other measures
may be taken to further our aims. At last we have a
School of Oriental Study in London and great things may
be expected of it, but it cannot take the place of what is
needed in India itself — viz., a similar institution where the
best methods would be employed and where teachers could

6 2 The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

be trained for their work , an institution providing courses
of instruction for all who cared to use it, with facilities for
conversation with native speakers of the languages studied,
and giving such insight into Indian life as would equip a
man for his work and save him from many an initial
blunder , an institution controlling all language examina-
tions in a regular manner This is obviously a work which
can best be done amidst the environment to be studied and
understood and the institution would reach a far larger
number than the one in London can be expected to do
The higher work should be the business of the Home
Institution, the Indian should aim at immediate practical
usefulness although it could no doubt usefully contribute
to the work of the senior house

Some sixteen years ago I caused to be printed and
circulated a pamphlet advocating the establishment of such
an institution The actual result was not great because
the majority of those consulted would not make the sacrifice
of the first few months of a man’s service although many
acknowledged that this service was not of much value and
frequently ic suited in poor attainments in the vernaculars
and a lowered efficiency afterwards Since that proposal was
put forth tentative experiments have been made on the
lines suggested, and although these have not been so
successful as they would have been if they had been more
seriously and carefully organized, I can still honestly say
that nothing has occurred to shake my conviction of the
necessity of such an institution, and much has happened to
strengthen that conviction Not only would it help the
student over the first diudger) incident to the study of any
language it would put him in the way of doing subsequent
wot k, and probably quicken his interest in things Indian
The Indian languiges are not difficult and failure to learn
them is generally to be traced to lack of interest or to faulty
methods of study

What should be the attitude towards this institution ?
If it be admitted that high attainments in the vernaculars

63

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

are essential to good work, and to the creation of a sympathy
with things Indian, the duty of Government, as of other
authorities, does not end with the provision of facilities for
acquiring such knowledge , it must go on to see that they
are utilized to the fullest extent, and everything possible
should be done to encourage the use of the institution
Leave for language study is often given but this leave can
be truly profitable only when the necessary facilities for
substantial work are provided Language leave should not
be a favour conferred on those who ask for it, but a require-
ment to be enforced at the beginning of a man’s caieer in
India and regulations should be laid down demanding that
the leave given shall be spent in the way prescribed
What every man needs is help and guidance at the start,
the help which util enable him quickly to find his feet in
the new surroundings, and create in him an interest which
will remain with him throughout his life bar better is it
that he should do no work at all for a time than that he
should be badly equipped Instead of submitting them
selves to the guidance of those who, because they wish to
please thur temporary employers, make it their mam
purpose to steer their pupils as easily as possible through
the intricacies of an exammition, and to do tins by skilful
anticipation of what is likely to be asked, students, if they
are really to learn the languages, must be put under skilled
teachers who aim at ultimate proficiency It follows that the
institution I propose should control the examinations and
free them from their present liability to fluctuation The
general level has to be raised and the institution must aim
at this rather than at the creation of experts This latter
work is rather the province of the School in London

It would be well if the incentives to study now provided
could be increased to the point where they would overcome
the present reluctance to take up the study of language
seriously and encourage those whose taste lies that way
to exercise it to the full The roll of those who have found
time to do good work in this field is long and contains many

64 The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

honoured names, but it is to be feared that, for the majority,
language study is a hardly grudged labour enforced by a
disagreeable regulation.

Jt may also be said that, outside Government circles,
there is a strong feeling that, in the allocation of officers,
too little attention is given to their particular linguistic
attainments A man usually gives himself to the study of
his first language more heartily than to any subsequent one,
but the knowledge that, however proficient he may try to
become, he will probably be called to learn another in a
short time is a distinct discouragement and tends to deaden
interest It is impossible always to keep men in one
language area, but it should be possible to do much better
than is done There is much reason to think that the point
hardly enters seriously into the deliberations at head-
quarters, and this cannot be considered satisfactory by
those who know how essential to good work of the kind so
urgently needed is proficiency in the language

We would sum up by saying that the whole matter must
be considered in the light of the fact that the new India is
going to be a more uncomfortable place than it has been
hitherto for those who are not prepared to enter into her
life and to sympathize with her aspirations 7 he foreigner
will never be anything else than a foreigner if he is not a
ready speaker and writer of the vernacular Side by side
with the demand that Indians shall manage their own
affairs, there exists a desire that Englishmen shall contribute
what they alone can do, but the actual value of their
contributions will depend almost entirely upon the spirit in
which they are offered, and the evidence they bear with
them of a sympathetic grasp of the problems they affect.
We are dealing with a people of a peculiar mentality, and
in order to help them we must understand them and gain
their confidence. The key to the situation is such a know-
ledge of a vernacular as will enable the possessor to find
rich interest in the lives, customs and thought of the people
Where this interest is active the common reproach that the

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars 65

Englishman is a man of his office and gymkhana only, and
has nothing in common with Indians, will no longer be
applicable. Where there is a good knowledge of the
vernacular, there we may expect to find the sort of interest
which will convince India that we want to see her move
forward to the time when we shall point to her greatness
as the finest thing the Anglo-Saxon race has ever achieved.

I thank you for your patience in listening to what must
have seemed somewhat visionary, and trust you will pardon
what may have appeared to be harsh. My apology must
be that desperate evils require desperate remedies, and the
evils arising from the general lack of sympathetic under-
standing of the Indian people are such that very energetic
measures are called for.

66

DISCUSSION ON THE FOREGOING PAPER

A meeting of the East India Association was held on Monday, October 20,
1919, at the I mco]nshire Room , 7, Tothill Street, Westminster, at which
a paper was read by the Rev \ Darby m a , pij (Kolhapur State
Service Retired) entitled ‘ Ihe Study of the Indian Vernaculars In
the absence of the Right Hon I ord Lamington, ( c m g , gcie, the
chair was taken by Mr William Coldstream, kih, and the following,
amongst others, were present Sr Krishna G Gupta, kcsi Sir Man
cherjee M 1 hown iggree kcit Sardar Khan Bahadur Rustom J Vakil,
Mr N C Sen o J Y , Mr J L Bennington Mr Hugh Spencer e 1 > ,
Mr R Grant Brown, Mr C B Kama Rao, M d , the Rev H U
Weitbrccht Stinton dd General C han er, Lady Katharine Stuart,
Mrs Garlin^ Diury Mi G M kyan Mr I J F Riel ter Mrs Jackson,
Miss Coll s 1 roness Larnikoff Miss I R Scatcherd Mr 1 H Brown,
Mr B V Jadhav Mrs Meaden, Mr I C Swift, Mr R C Master, Mr
P Philhpow&ky Mr J K Gayu - , Mr I C Channing Mr P \ Gu>ry,
Mr W J 1 Tingle Mr T S Dhunjibhov Miss Howsin Mr J P B
Jccjeebhoy Mr I Grubb Mr Muthwell C olonel W H Burke, 1 m s ,
Colonel 1 ^ Jerry, the Rev A Davis Mr I Pratt, Miss Eleanor

Sykes, Miss Vilfoid, I rofessor 1 ickerton Mr M Ramachandra Rau,
Mr Duncan Irune, Mr I Goth and Mr Stanley Rice, Hon Secretary

The ( ii \ 1 m \n ladies ind gentlemen I have much pleasure in
introducing to you the Rev \ Darby, who has been engaged in India in
missionaiy and educational work He has been twenty six years in India,
and, having gai led his experience in a native state and in different parts of
India, he is no doubt very well qualified to speak upon the subject of the
lecture (Hear hear)

The paper was then read

The 1 1 ci 1 1 1 1 I would just like to say in conclusion, that this paper
is the outcome of an application I made to the East India Association to
support me in the work I am trying to do in the way suggested in this
paper 1 have tor some years been meditating the production of a series
of Grammars w Inch would me^t the needs of students and when I asked
Dr rollcn what he could do to help me he suggested that 1 should read
this paper here and so give publicity to my ideas

The Chairman Ladies aod gentlemen, we must all feel the vast
importance of the subject which has been treated in such an interesting
manner by the Lecturer Its importance for the British nation can
hardly be exaggerated The training of our officials m the vernaculars
of the East has bten the subject of much deliberation and many schemes
and plans in the last hundred years, and while we must admit that
the Indian official as regards his intimate acquaintance with the

6 ;

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

people, capacity for gathering information, and so on, is somewhat
nearer his subject than the English official, I hope the Lecturer has
depreciated somewhat too strongly the general qualifications of the
British official in his knowledge of the vernacular (Hear, hear) I
can call to mind the names of many Civil officers m the Punjab whose
knowledge of the language was wide and intimate I have known of
Commissioners, officers of hic:h standing, who weie able to talk the
Punjab vernacular with the most ignorant villager I am sure the names
of some of those m that Frovince, where I myself served, will be present
to the recollection of some whom I see now before me

There is no doubt that facility in the use of the language is of the very
utmost importance At the same time it may be exaggerated in a way,
that is to say, the knowledge of the language and administrative ability do
not ilwajs go togethei A good many of us a ho have served m India as
Civil Servants know that very well \ great scholar is not necessarily a
good district officer and i good district officer may be a very poor scholar
At the same time it is most necessary that the Civil official especnll> m
’he tumor grades should be vtrj well up in the vernaculars Our Oovern
lmnt has alwa)s recogni7ed that In the old days theit wis m Calcutta
an institution called the College of hort William It was passing away
whin 1 was a young man in C alculta more than fifty years ago, and but a
shadow of it remained In those d ys Colonel Nassau Ices was the
“'M-cretary to the Hoard of Examiners lhe >oung civilian*- were taught m
their rooms by Indian Pandits and Wunshees I remember bein r examined
in Hindi by tint good man and good scholar Professor hushna Mohan
J ai neijca That system worked for a long time, and then Government
considered that it would be better that there should be a careful study of
the Grammar before the young man went out to Indn, and that after study
at home he should be sent straight to his district, where in immediate
contact with the people, he was able to pick up the colloquial very readily ,
and I am not sure that that, on the whole, is not the best plan, though I
think the question lequires very careful consideration as to what is now
most advisable lhe great importance of the official being at home in
the vernaeular cannot be denied An intimate knowledge of the common
language is a kind of key to the hearts of the people with whom he may
come in contact , and a knowledge of a classical language, Arabic or
Sanskrit or Persian gives a man a higher status and additional influence
with the educated classes in the district in which he may be seiving
Very often an apt quotation from a Hindi or Persian author in conversa
t on will open the heart of a friend in a remarkable manner I have now
great pleasure in inviting discussion on the subject of the paper

Mr Pennington said the great difficul y they had in Madras was that
there were so many languages, and officials were frequently transferred
from one language to another, making it almost impossible to acquire a
thorough knowledge of even one vernacular To take his own case, for
instance when he went to India he passed an elementary test m three
languages — Telugu, Hindustani, and Tamil — and was sent to a Telugu dis-
trict, in which language he might have become proficient after a residence

68

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

there of aboi/ three years , but he was then transferred toTmne\elIy, where
he had considerable difficulty in picking up Tamil. That was the one great
drawback in Madras generally, that there were so many different languages

Mr Duncan Irvinl said he thought Mr Pennington rather exaggerated
the difficulty of the Madras languages Personally, he had served in
Madras and had never found any difficulty in talking to any of the names,
high or low, that he came across It might be a little more difficult to talk
to the speakers of high lamil than to the ryot, but as far as his own
experience went he was able, as a judge for many years, to examine a
witness himself if necessary, or even to charge the jury, in the vernacular,
and he did not think his was an exceptional case. He could hardly agree
with the suggestion that a man who could address a native audience in the
vernacular and who could make himself understood without an interpreter
was at all a prodigy He did not claim to be a prodigy, and he had no
difficulty whatever in doing it (Hear, hear)

The Rev Dr Stanton said he did not want to labour the questions
which had been rused about the necessity of learning the language better
As a missionaiy examiner in Urdu and Punjabi, it had been one of his
great difficulties to get men and women to give the necessary time and
attention to the language, as against pressing claims of practical work
Even missionaries did not fully realize that without a mastery of the
language one cannot get at the minds of its speakers Further, he had
always urged young candidates to live, as far as possible, amongst the
people One obstacle to familiar knowledge of the vernacular was that
they were generally living in English households, and so failed to get into
an Indian atmosphere.

Regarding the necessity for better language manuals for India, he
emphatically supported the plea put forth by the 1 ecturer. As an examiner
in Urdu for the Cambridge Senior Local Standard he had repeatedly
suggested, but as yet without effect, the provision of a standard grammar
to be used in all the North Indian European schools At present he found
that boys and girls m certain schools failed to understand some of the
grammatical terms used in the papers set, owing to the confusion of
terminology between different books This was unfair to the pupil and
hampering to the examiner If such books were to be compiled he would
suggest that in addition to an English editor in each case there should cer
tainly be also a qualified Indian (and in some cases, as of Urdu, both a
Hindu and a Mu sal man) associated with him If the vernacular were to
be properly taught they must have qualified teachers acquainted with
modern language methods, and for this they must have an adequate
system of training

1 he question of a common script was most important The problem of
mass education in India was coming rapidly to the front, and unless an
easy unified script were provided for primary education much of the
elementary instruction would be lost after school years owing to the low
standard reached when most of the time had been expended on mere
practise of script The Japanese were thinking of reforming their compli
cated system of writing, and the Chinese had quite recently adopted an

6 9

The Study 0/ the Indian Vernaculars

alphabet of thirty nine letters which expressed all the words of the Chinese
language in place of the thousands of ideograms now m use, and this
alphabet was being adopted in all the Government schools in China
Finally, with regard to the books proposed, they should have regard to
modem methods of language teaching The modern method was built,
not upon the sight of written characters but upon the sound of spoken
words and sentences It aimed at making whatever the learner acquired
fully available from the very first for use in intercourse (Hear, hear )

Mr Grant Brown said he thought the Lecturer had not at all exaggerated
either the importance of English officials m India having an intimate and
accurate knowledge of the languages of the people among whom they
worked, or the shortcomings in this respect of most of the officials of the
present day As the Chairman had said, the ablest administrator
was not always the best linguist Indeed, the ablest men were apt
to be drafted into the secretariate, where they not only failed to learn
to talk to the people, but acquired very little knowledge of their nature,
their feelings and desires, their customs and their prejudices and this
was to hi n a matter for regra It was often said that British officials
knew less of the move languages than they did It was quite possible
that the statements to this effect were exaggerated, and that m the
old days a really intimate knowledge cf the people and their languages
was confined to a comparatively small number of men whose attainments
were remembered, while the indifference of the rest was forgotten So far
as they were true, thL chief cause was probably the want of 'cisure resulting
from the great burden of office work now imposed upon officials The lark
of leisure, however, could be counterbalanced by the use of science Every
officer sent to India should, before leaving this country receive a thorough
training in the science ot languages, and especially in the science of speech
sounds Such a training would equip him for acquiring any language with
comparative ease and accuracy His own experience was that, after learn
ing the Burmese written language for two years, he was unable on landing
in Burma to understand a single sentence spoken by a Burman or to
make himself understood by him That was the experience of others
Indeed he believed most of his contemporaries never learned to speak
anything but a jumble of the written and spoken languages, which differed
entirely from each other in the most important part of the vocabulary, the
particles. The knowledge he had acquired of the written language was
more a hindrance than a help to him, and he had had no ear training and
therefore found it very difficult to learn the spoken language by tar

\s regards the proposed series of textbooks of spoken languages he
wished to sound a note of warning The plan of having a uniform frame
work and terminology might suit the Aryai languages, but it would not
work with an analytical language like Burmese, the structure of which was
totally different

Mrs. AMT Jackson said the Chairman rather seemed to suggest that
the study of languages was a voluntary thing, but certainly so far as she
remembered m Bombay, the study of languages was compulsory amongst
young officials. In her own personal experience when travelling about

70

The Study of the Indian Vernaculai s

with her husband, she found it was quite an exception for the officials to
employ an interpreter under any circumstances In fact, it was considered
rather discreditable to do so, and young officials had to pass tests in the
language of whatever part of the Presidency they were assigned to They
were compelled to pass the examinations before they received promotion

Dr C B Rama Rao said that he agreed with what had been said as to
the written and spoken languages being very often quite different from one
another One may even acquire a scholarship in a language and yet not
be able to take part in a homely conversation The difficulty which Mr
Pennington experienced in Southern India had been referred to His
name had nevertheless become a household word in the Tinnevelly
district, but he gathered that his accessibility and his sympathy acquired
him that fame rather than his knowledge of the vernaculars The
tendency of the Britishers out m India to day was not conducive to
popularity , because they preferred their own clubs in their leisure time,
and P nglish offit ers had scarcely time to speak to the people whom they had
been sent out to govern A great deal could be done if some attention
was devoted to improving the relations between the Indians and the
Englishman in India He also wished to mention another point, but
feared that probably his ideas might be considered loo btopian While
travelling on the steamer there were a large number of Indians on board
but there wer** several to whom he could not speak in their own vernacular,
although an Indian himself, speaking six Indian vernaculars That was not a
desirable state of things, and when historians came to write the achieve
ments of the English people in India he hoped one of the greatest things
to their credit would be the bringing together of North and South as one
great people by one common language There were many words in
common between the two great vernaculars of India — viz, Urdu and
Hindi — and it might be possible to unify these two languages, by a strong
committee of the ruling princes and the reprise itatives of the people, so
as to avoid confusion and difficulty Nothing was more desirable than a
common script, and he would suggest the best was undoubtedly the
(English) Roman chnacters, as it was well known all the world over
(Hear, hear )

Sir Krishna Gupta said the Lecturer had proceeded upon the
assumption that there was a gieat want of sympathy between the Britisher
who went to India and the people of India, and that that want of sympathy
was mainly due to ignorance of Indian vernaculars, and he had been
interested to see speaker after speaker plead guilty to the accusation If
those Britishers in India were inspired by sympathy surely they would find
some means of trying to learn the language I or officers there was a sort
of compulsory education m the vernaculars, but few of them afterwards
kept up their requirements or tried to improve their knowledge of the
languages , that may be due to want of sympathy, or to other causes, but
on the other hand there were many distinguished English people who had
done a great deal for the Indian languages, and Indians were deeply
indebted to them for their great work There was an old saying that you
could bring a horse to the water, but you could not make him drink

7i

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

The*-e were facilities for learning the languages but many did not take
advantage of them, either because they did not realize the necessity or
were too apathetic If they really wished to improve the knowledge of
Indian languages amongst administrators the best way would be to
abolish English as the official language In the old days undoubtedly
officers had a better knowledge of the vernaculars but nowadays it was
hardly so necessary to know them T here were several vernac lars spoken
by large bodies of the people, and these would continue to exist and
improve but no doubt every educated Indian should be familiar with
h nghsh as a second language because they would carry 11m throughout
the world He wished to emphasize that they would not creatt sympathy
merely by spreading a knowledge of the vernaculars, but sympathy must
come from other sources, and if it was not really felt they could not
artificially create it

Lady Kvjharjne Silart and Professor Licklitcn also spoke
strongly in favour of Fspennto

The LrcTui er in reply said he did not mean to imply that all officials
lacked knowledge of the vernaculars but simply that the general standard
m the case of all Europeans was not high enough With regard to
I speranto he understood there would shortly be a rival to I speranto m
India and he had no hesitation in saying it would be easier for Indians to
learn thin Esperanto So far as examinations were concerned he knew
they were compulsory and he did not think it necessary to mention it
Sir Krishna Lupta had mentioned the question of sympathy which
entirely dej ended on understanding and knowledge, and they could not
get that without close contract with the people 1 he proj er means of
applying sympathy was the ability to talk freely and fluently to a native m
hi* own language (Hear hear )

The Chairman said that friends like the I ecturer — Christ an missionaries
— had often become famous for their knowledge of the languages of Ind a
He thought, with reference to certa n remarks made that a fair proportion
of district officers could make a speech in the vernaculars The discussion
had been well kept up and the meeting was very much obliged to
Mr Darby for his interesting paper

Dr J D Anderson writes as follows

I much regret that I w as not able to be present at the discussion of the
Rev A Darby s valuable and interesting paper As I have been teaching
Bengali in Lngland for many years to men and women alike to Indians as
well as to English people I may be allowed to make one or two suggestions
I will not waste time and space in commenting on the large part of Mr
Darby s paper with which I heartily agree, but will proceed at once to state
my doubts and reservations

i The Cambridge University Press is printing a series of elementary
Manuals of Modern Languages in which has already been included a little
Manual of Bengali The method adopted is to give a skeleton grammar,
as concise and elementary as possible, followed by a varied and
annotated selection of examples from prose and verse literature, with a
copious and full vocabulary The examples are all transliterated into the

72

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

script recommended by the Geneva committee of the Oriental Congress,
now used by Orientalists all over the world Teachers can, of course,
easily supplement this by using the International Phonetic Association s
script for those students who use their eyes to correct the evidence of their
ears Mr Knowles s system of transliteration might have been used
instead of the Geneva script if scholars generally had adopted it They
have, so far, failed to do so

2 I heartily support what Mr Darby says as to the value and
potentiality of the London School of Oriental Studies, to whose generosity
I am indebted for the publication of a pamphlet on the phonetics of
Bengali But Mr Darby might also have mentioned that Indian
languages, classical and modern are studied at Oxford and Cambridge
We all wish success to the admirably conducted school in Finsbury
Circus But there is room also for Oriental Schools at the older
universities, which might make larger use perhaps, of their considerable
population of Indian graduates and undergraduates

3 As to the proposed school in India, I may remind Mr Darbj that the
Indian Universities are now making i serious and scholarly study of the
Prakrits and their offspring the modern languages of India Why should
not Europeans follow courses and take degrees in the new modern language
schools in the Indian Universities ?

4 As to the suggestion that the terminology of Indian grammar should
be Anglicized and made conformable with that recently suggested by a
Committee wh ch reported on uniformity of grammatical terms, we must
not forget that Indians were grammarians and phonologists long before
Europeans studied these matters Indian Vyakaravas repay careful study
Their conclusions may not always seem to us to be scientifically correct,
but they have a j sjcliological and literary value as showing the Indians
own view of his own foims, syntax and etymology The attempt to apply
European terminology to Indian grammatical facts produces a temptation
to misunderstand or misdescribe the facts An interesting example is a
recent attempt by Fuiopean grammarians to disco\er moods in Indian
languages Modal sense can be expressed m Indian tongues by various
devices But there aie no modal inflexions The passive voice in many
Indian languages to say nothing of the non-fimte verb) has been mis
understood by many European writers on grammar, owing to an attempt
to identify its woiking with that of the European passive Surely we
should, as far as possible, use Indian terminology, or a translation of it.

I hope these hasty criticisms will not be interpreted to imply a lack of
sympathy with the object which Mr Darby has in view What he desires,
all teachers of Indian languages must needs desire But we must not be
pedantic or dogmatic about methods After all, students and teachers
differ in mentality, and a good teacher will readily change his way of
teaching to suit a pupil who prefers a method which he finds easiest for
himself As for the Indian alphabets, Indians themselves will readily
admit that the chief defect is the convention of the “ inherent a which
has led to the invention (a trouble at once to the printer and to the
reader's eye) of the “compound consonant ' The addition of a symbol

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

73

for t’ns, at present, unwritten letter would make Indian alphabets better
than any in use in Europe Laksml , for instance, might then be printed as

k

it is here given, and not, as Indian convention requires, as Indian

m

alphabets are so much more nearly phonetic than ours that, if this trifling
change were adopted, and one or two additional symbols (such as one for
w in most languages) were added, the Indian scripts would hardly need to
be transliterated at all
To this, Mr Darby writes

By way of reply to Dr. Anderson s sympathetic remarks on my paper, I
regret that he was not present at the lecture, but his absence has this com-
pensation that it has given me the opportunity to reply to the points raised
more at leisure I must first of all apologize for my failure to make quite
clear that I had in mind a much larger unit than that which comprises
those only who are able to avail themselves of such facilities as arc pro-
vided for in England. My remarks throughout were coloured by the
knowledge that there are many who ought to learn a vernacular but do not,
because the re juisitc facilities arc absent, and who require books of a kind
winch they cannot at present procure Of the need of raising the standard
all round I ha\e already spoken sufficiently

Since I was addressing an audience possessing much knowledge of the
subject, I did not think it necessary to mention what all might be expected
to remember, my time was limited and the clamant note of the tea bell
frustrated my intention to take up points that might arise at a later stage
Not one, but many papers would be required to bring out ail the factors of
the pioblem which have to be considered and have actually been considered
J he essential considerations are that the need of better and more
extended study of the vernaculars is pressing, so pressing indeed that one
wonders if the day for it has not passed , the teachers are seldom good, and
for many of the languages the available books are unsuitable Those who
have given attention to more than one vernacular must have learned the
truth of this statement, and the numbei of my supporters would largely
increase if those who know a vernacular could recall their early labours in
a vivid way My point is not destroyed by the existence of some good
books, I speak of the situation generally

I am glad to hear of the proposals of the Cambridge University Tress,
but trust that the description of the methods followed is incomplete, or I
am afraid the sales will disappoint the promoters

The Indian Universities are aiming to encourage the study of the ver
nacuiars, a study which is comparatively neglected even in the secondary
schools, but the students to be catered for are those who already know the
languages for practical purposes better than an Englishman can ever hope
to do. 1 his study, of course, includes the Prakrits, but this is not what the
newcomer to India requires In Bombay at least the courses of study
must be gone through in a regular manner and include much else. An
adult may be asked to spend slx months at a language school, to give all
his time to one study , he ran hardly be asked to take a two years’ course

74 The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

at the University What he actually wants is taught in the Primary
Schools

Regarding the section of my paper devoted to the subject of translitera
tion, I would say that I took up the larger question of a universal alphabet
for India because of its prominence at the present time For my own
needs what is required is a Romanic alphabet for purposes of utility in the
making of books for learners Under present conditions familiarity with
the vernacular character is essential and the vernacular alphabet must
form the basis of the work I want a simple system by aid of which the
sounds can be taught, and which will assist the student in his first attempts
to decipher the complicated native characters It will also be useful for
purposes of reference and in other ways, and valuable results can be
obtained by its use I he actual system adopted is not a matter of serious
consequence, but it should not exhibit a number of diacritical points, nor
should it be such a c to prejudice Indians irrecoverably, as I am afraid the
International would do, owing to its heterogeneous appearance I still
think the principle adopted by Mr Knowles is the soundest one to follow
and the easiest to learn even if the application may be bettered

So far as a phonetic sjstcm is concerned, the Sanskrit is amply good
enough and 1 merely want an equivalent sign for sign If a study of
phonetics is dtsirablt, let it begin with a system which is ^till very much
alive, and which underlies the vernaculars more thoroughly than an) can be
said to underlie English or I rench Minor modifications are for
specialists, not for the general student

The situation with regard to terminology is somewhat similai I want a
fixed system just so far as it will facilitate the work of learning, teaching
and reference, and I should wish it to conform as far as possible to the
decisions of experts Circumlocution and explanation are needless
labour when well defined terms are available The real difficulty here
lies in present conceptions of grammar So long as it is treated as a
formal science, certain arguments, fiequently heard, have weight when it
is treated as a logical explanation of the elements required to
express a judgment in the form of a proposition many of these arguments
lose their cogency It is not perhaps so clearly understood as it ought to
be that the elements of sentence structure are essential to all human
speech, and must be present to the mind of speaker and hearer even if
they are not expressed It helps the student if these elements are
isolated and made clear, and not hidden away in a mass of cross divisions
I cannot here go into the matter, but would refer those who may desire to
consider this point to my book ‘ Ihe Mechanism of the Sentence'
published by the Oxford University Press, wherein I have tried to show why
the Indian languages do not exhibit the moods of English My own
impression is that Indians have neglected the study of sentence form in
favour of phonetics and etymology , they certainly have failed in some
degree to distinguish mood from tense, the adjective of action from the
noun of action, the active from the passive, although these distinctions
undoubtedly exist and are readily understood by Indians when pointed
out We may remind ourselves that we are not catering for Indians but

The Study of the Indian Vernaculars

75

for Englishmen, who will reach an understanding most readily through
what is familiar , if they thereby learn to express themselves aright no
harm is done, the point is to get them to do this as quickly and
as intelligently as possible

The mentality of the student is, of course, a very important factor in
education, but a book must be the exponent of some one system if it is to
be a success and a consistent performance, and when it is designed for
beginners it must not assume a knowledge yet to be gained, and it must
lead on by clear and logically consecutive steps It is for the teacher to
supply the necessary adaptation, if he can

I trust Dr, Anderson will forgive me if I say that in his concluding
remarks regarding the Indian alphabets he seems to transfer the merits of
the Sanskrit phonetic system to the characters employed to convey it.
The symbols are conventional and may mean any thing, as a comparison
of Gurmukhi with Sanskrit will show It can hardly be contended that
they are simple or well defined in many ot the languages

I take this opportunity to thank those who, by their kindly criticisms,
have suggested much that is helpful If I cannot always see eye to eye
with them, I trust it will be understood *bat my critics do not agree
among themselves, and that my failure to please is due to my being in
search of a relative accuracy, a presentation which is true so far as it goes,
but does not pretend to scientific completeness I am fresh from direct
contact wuth the many factors which necessitate compromise in various
directions, and every compromise will arouse criticism if one cannot explain
exactly why it is made

Jb

A GERMAN ON INDIA

Bv S tani F" v Rice, ics (klid)

We all know now that long before the war Germany had
been nourishing a deadly hatred of England, which was
born of jealousy and nursed into maturity by every con-
ceivable means England to the Germans was the robber
State which appiopnated all parts of the globe, trampled
under foot all the nations and peoples who had the mis-
fortune to fall under her rule It was the part of the
upright, disinterested Germany to deliver the world from
the common oppressor , it was the German Siegfried who
was to crush the English Fafner We had gone into India
with the Bible in one hand and the opium pipe in the
other, by our gioss materialism we had extinguished all
the glamour of the immemorial East So self evident was
all this that it was superfluous to ask whether Germany
had anything better to offer That we had introduced
peace and order into India, that the people were for the
most part content with our rule, that we had developed our
colonies in a manner unapproached by other nations — these
were nothing to the controversialists to whom facts were
negligible and political capital was everything

I suppose it may be taken as axiomatic that a man will
tell the truth when there is no object in lying, and it may
therefore be of interest to consider for a few minutes what
a German professor has said about India The lecture,
which is entitled “ Modern India, 51 was delivered to a
scientific society in Berlin called, I think, Die Gesellschaft
fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, and it was published only in the

A German on India

77

journal of that society It could not, therefore, have been
intended for popular consumption in Germany, still less
was it meant to appeal to anyone in England, for it may
be doubted whether there are a hundred Englishmen who
have ever seen it The lecturer was Professor Wegener,
who toured India m 19 n with the Crown Prince and
afterwards became the war correspondent of the Cologne
Gazette during the war He had, of course exceptional
opportunities of seeing things for himself and he examines
the various problems with characteristic German thorough
ness though of course he could only see things as most
travellers do from a single standpoint — in his case the
official

The first thing that struck this German critic of our
Indian Empire was that England herrscht wirkhch * 1
“ England really rules not only in name as Holland does
in so many parts of her colonial possessions in further India,
and not by compromise F very traveller through India
has felt that the English power is active in the most out-
lying parts of the country 1 his power is not apparent
according, he says to German notions it is felt rather
than seen, but he seems to imply that it is far more effective
than the terrorist methods of Germany in South West
Africa.

For he acknowledges handsomely that England is the
past master, and Germany only the disciple m colonization
“ Think what you will of the English, no one can deny
that they are the most experienced and most successful
colonists in the world We, too, possess tropical colonies,
and have to learn as colonial beginners He is in fact,
greatly impressed with this peculiar faculty ot the English
He speaks in another place of the “quite extraordinary
genius for administration which is peculiar to the English
as it was formerly to the Romans Their greatest gift is
not their business capacity , in that they have rivals but
they are unrivalled in their instinctive ability for organiza
tion and government ’ And it is worth while remarking

7 «

A German on India

that this capacity is expressed m the composition of the
Services, and especially of the Civil Service, for that
particular body has of late come in for as much unmerited
abuse in certain quarters as in former times it was wont to
receive praise perhaps as unmerited. The Civil Service
is not composed of the Ihte of England the best men are
very able, and the worst do not fall below a fairl) high
standard It does its heavy and responsible work loyally
and generally efficiently and if it does not deserve extra-
vagant eulogies, neither can it fairly be described, as a
recent writer has described it, as a set of well meaning
but unsympathetic carpet-baggers, who, “alike in their
work or in their pleasure, keep as far aloof from the people
they govern as possible ‘ white > oung bureaucrats

who decline to associate on equal terms with ‘men of
ancient lineage The Professor belongs to the former
rather than the latter class — the class of those who praise
not of those who blame In his view, the Civil Serwce is
composed of young men who come out in the freshest
physical and intellectual capacity for work, and the work
they have to do gives them ‘ the opportunity to develop
the unique talent of their race for organization and govern-
ment The officers of the Civil Service show the

Englishman at his best, and he “recognizes with admira-
tion what a wealth of devotion, of duty solemnly performed,
of integrity and love for the people entrusted to them, is
rendeied by these men cast often into lonely, hot and
feverish places

I am not in the least concerned to defend the Civil or
any other Service from attack, or to quote the Professor
triumphantly as a witness to the greatness of our adminis-
tration in India. Perhaps he would have been more
interesting had he found more fault, and in that case he
would certainly not have been the less worthy our attention ,
perhaps , too, he was influence d by kindly memories of
pleasant hospitalities received At any rate, viewing the
matter as dispassionatelv as we can we see here a member

A German on India

79

of a nation which not even a casuist could call friendly,
reviewing our Indian Empire as a whole, and finding that,
as a whole, it is good Bernhardi, with a political axe to
grind, writing from a study in Germany, tells his country-
men that England is the robber State, and that “Germany,
no less than England, is dowered with the genius for
Empire , Wegener, after studying India at first hand,
whispers to a small, scientific audience that the English
are the greatest colonists in the world, and India is her
most magnificent colony and, lest there should be any
doubt that he is confusing fact with principle he adds not
once but several times that England has a capacity for
organization and government unrivalled by any other
nation We ha\e heard so often of the inestimable
benefits ol British rule and the excellence of our British
administration or if we turn to the critics of the opposite
school wu are presented with such a sombre picture of
misgovcrnmcnt, of indifference, of selfish exploitation of
India of alienation of the Indians, that it cannot be without
v due to listen with proper detachment to the opinions of
a German professor

He summarizes in two short paragraphs the benefits
which England has conferred on India, and the advantages
which India has for England — material benefits for the
most part — railways, and posts and telegraphs irrigation,
and an ordered system of justice on the one part a great
market for trade, raw materials and a supply of labour on
the other But he considers that the gieatest gift which
England has had to offer India is the creation of a pure
and unselfish public spirit, the example of a spotless service
for the common weal And India's value for England lies
pre-eminently in the opportunity she offers to the “able
sons of an energetic race ” to develop a capacity for resolu-
tion and responsibility, and the satisfaction of a manly
ambition May we not put this appraisement on broader
lines ? May we not say that the greatest gift which each
has for the other is a general widening of outlook ? Con-

8o

A German on India

tact wjth the West has broken down the ring fence which
the caste system and the devotion to ancient decrees had
erected round India, has roused her to a vision of her
political position in the world, and has awakened an interest
hitherto unknown in the affairs and in the doings of other
nations And it has aroused — some would put this first,
others may not regard it as altogether a blessing — it has
aroused a sense of national unity The dawn of nationality
is just beginning to brighten after the long night of India s
isolation and India’s sleep And for us, too, India has its
lesson. Time was — for some perhaps still is — when we
regarded the Indian people as groping in the darkness
of what we were pleased to call heathenism and idolatry
Time was — for some peihaps still is — when we looked
askance upon this civilization, and were content to
thank God that we are not as other men are A closer
acquaintance has shown us a real and living religion, the
object of passionate devotion to millions, expressing itself
sometimes in thoughts which would not be out of place in
the New Testament, has shown us a civilization which has
produced profound thinkeis, earnest men and loving and
faithful wives That is the gift which India gives us
Some have not received it , others would deny its exist-
ence , but it is there all the same, and by the light of that
levelation we may increase our chanty, we may learn that
“ truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established
without the aid of our particular religion and our particular
civilization, and may more clearly distinguish the beam in
our own eye when we discern the mote or motes in the
eyes of Indians

The Professor recognizes the “sure instinct ’ which has led
us, as it led the Romans, to adopt the attitude of religious
toleration, or, as we should prefer to say, religious neutrality
He ascribes this attitude to the lessons we have learned m
the past (and especially to the lesson of the Mutiny) and to
our fear of similar catastrophes Some missionaries appear
to have told him that in their dread of seeming to favour

A German on India

8r

Christians, the officers of justice are inclined to go to the
other extreme and to favour the heathen, or as we should
say the non-Christtan, unduly And he instances further
our handling of the plague as evidence of our extreme
sensitiveness in religious matters We had attacked this
problem with “ wonderful energy', we had adopted all the
measures then known to science, we had imported reinforce-
ments of doctors and nurses But signs began to appear
that the people resented the inevitable interference with
their private life and with those customs that have almost
become a part of their religion, and in fear of disaffection, if
not of actual rebellion, the Government of India stayed its
hand, with, of course, disastrous results This is true, but
surely it is not the whole truth The policy of religious
neutrality is one of the pillars of good and orderly govern-
ment, not onlj in India but everywhere else m India,
where religion is a living, pulsating passion, that pillar is
all the more important You cannot force a people to
accept a measure which interferes with something they
hold dearer than life What would have happened in
England if the people had held their individual liberty
dearer than the national safety and had refused conscrip
tion ? Individual liberty has always been regarded as the
dearest possession of an Englishman, and we know with
what caution the Military Service Act was introduced
And here was somethmg higher and greater than mere
policy For we have recognized the principle that no man
should suffer for his opinions that the two great religions
of India are the very soul of the people who profess them,
and that to sacrifice this principle to administrative
necessities however imperious would be to shake the
foundations of British justice on which so largely we base
our Empire

Surely, too, the Professor is in error when he attributes
to the doctrine of “Maya ' a certain apathy in political affairs
This doctrine is the outcome of a philosophy which teaches
that the external world is all illusion and that the spiritual

VOL XVI.

F

82

A German on India

world is the only reality, but like so many other philo-
sophical doctrines it exists rather in theory than in practice.
If it be true that the Indian “smiles at those who take so
much trouble about such trifles ’ as politics and govern-
ment, “and leaves it all to them,’ why does he clamour for
self-government, for equality, for better recognition, and
the rest ? Why does he insist upon more extended educa-
tion and more industrial training ? Why does he trouble
about his rice-fields and his litigation ? 1 he truth is that

until very recently the Indian was content to acquiesce in
a system which left to the European the task of administra-
tion and government As Indians were gradually admitted
to posts of responsibility and acquitted themselves honour-
ably in them, the country awoke to the consciousness that
Indians could compete in the same field with Europeans
The lecture was delivered, it is true, before the present
phase of Indian politics had developed, but after the unrest
of 1907 08 and it is difficult to understand why the lecturer
should have discovered a political apathy due to “Maya,
in the face of such an obviously political movement

The Professor has great admiration for the system of
justice which we have established, but apparently regards
it as sometimes too elaborate and too academic for the
needs of the country We give for example, too much
protection to the usurer, for in the old days, if he pressed
too hardly for his money, the debtor would have struck him
dead, and “then,” says the Professor quaintly, “he would
have to be rather careful ” Let me add also that we some-
times give too much protection to the debtor in our
scrupulous avoidance of all that might seem unfair, a
distinguished judge has remarked that “the troubles of a
litigant begin when he has obtained his decree, ' so many
are the ways in which the law permits practical justice to
be circumvented or at least delayed in execution But it is
in the sphere of trade that the lecturer thinks we have
shown the greatest weakness. The decline of Indian
manufactures, coupled with the great increase of popula-

A German on India

83

tion, has caused an ever-growing pressure on the soil and
has thereby lowered the standard of living. His view is
characteristically German, however. England has flooded
India with machine-made goods; but she is an industrial
country and it is therefore “ in the nature of things ” that
she cannot allow India to compete with her, but on the
contrary must insist on developing her great dependency
as a market for her own goods. The Government have, he
says, made some half-hearted attempts to revive native
industries, but he regards the whole question as insoluble.
It is not possible within the limits of this paper to discuss
the whole complicated question of the decline of native
industries. There have been, we know, certain efforts
made to protect English trade against Indian competition,
and the nervousness with which Lancashire lately received
the abolition of the countervailing cotton duties shows that
that spirit is not entirely dead. I do not know that we
who love India are particularly proud of that attitude, ror
does it seem to be shared by the Government of India or
by the Home authorities. But when all is said and done,
it is the introduction and development of machinery to
which the decline of Indian industries must be ascribed, for
handicrafts cannot in the long run compete with machinery,
be the policy Free Trade or Protection. You may tinker
with policies and tariffs, but the best chance India has of
regaining her lost trade, possibly at the expense of artistic
output, is to develop her factories and to learn to make her
own machines.

The Professor reserves his most trenchant criticism for
the educational system. Sir Valentine Chirol has called the
educational policy “ a more arduous experiment even than
that of governing the 300 millions of India with a handful
of Englishmen. Many nations have conquered remote
dependencies inhabited by alien races, imposed their laws
upon them and held them in peaceful subjection, though
even this has never been done on the same scale of
magnitude as by the British rulers of India. We alone

8 4

A German on India

have attempted to educate the Indians in our own literature
and science and to make them by education the intellectual
partners of the civilization that subdued them ” The Pro-
fessor agrees and considers that at first the results were
most encouraging. The best brains flocked to the new
education, learned “ the liberal ideas of the West,” and
became “ enthusiastic friends of England ” But after a
time the lower strata sought this new education , teachers
became more difficult to find, and as a body deteriorated
Thereupon the education began to degenerate , a half-
educated class grew up, fit for nothing but to scramble for
the broken meats of Government employment Dissatis
faction arose , men found that the education on which they
had perhaps spent their all, profited them nothing and
they were faced with destitution Of course there is
nothing new in this , we have all heard it scores of times
and many of us have seen it Does not the interest lie
rather m the pomt of view ? There is something analogous
to it m Germany itself, where, Price Collier tells us, crowds
of men, qualified by examinations, are awaiting the chance
of employment With this difference, however, that while
Germany is plagued with the superfluity of the efficient,
India suffers from the surplus of the inefficient That is
the Professor s touchstone — efficiency, and tested by that
we have not succeeded The Anglo Saxon would take
another view He would argue that a literary education
turns out youths by the hundred who take their place not
without credit in the various walks of life , if therefore you
apply the same methods, you obtain the same results, and
t ie result to be aimed at is the formation of character
India, how e\ er, is a country of surprises You add two and
two in the confident expectation that they will make four
Not a bit of it , they will make three and a half or five, or
two and a half — anything but four And so the system
which turns out of our public schools our soldiers, our
merchants, our priests, our Civil Service, only suffices to pro-
vide men crammed to the throat for the passing of examina-

A German on India

85

tluns, of whom those only can survive who have stomachs
to digest. The Indian’s virtues are an immense patience,
an infinite capacity for taking pains, and a faculty for
acquiring book knowledge which almost amounts to a
snare ; but he is not usually observant, he is not usually
inventive, and he is unaccustomed to responsibility. In a
word, if one may generalize, the Indian is more brilliant,
but the Englishman more solid.

Farther on we are told that one of our greatest dangers
is a “ Hindu reaction against Western culture and its
followers.” There is “a passionate propaganda for a
return to the old gods.” It amounts to “the whole revolt
of the Oriental nature against the European,” and the
leading spirits are “the Brahmans, who see their age-long
empire over the Indians called in question by modern
ideas.” It is true that about the time when the lecture was
delivered there was some kind of spasmodic attempt to set
Hinduism up against Western culture, but I cannot think that
the Professor has read the signs aright India’s one chance
of taking her place in the world is to assimilate Western
science and Western culture and to adapt them to her own
institutions , he who would try to check her on the carter
on which she has started would be in the position of Julian.
If she were again to sleep the sleep of Brunnhilde, some
Siegfried would arise to deliver her from that lethargy.
For the reaction is said to be, not against any Western
religion but against Western culture. We may believe -
many of us do believe — that the Hindu will continue to
worship the old gods in the old way, and I for one dc not
blame them. But to substitute the Shastras and the Laws
of Manu for the machinery of everyday life in the offict,
in the Law Courts, in the factory, or in the study is to set
the clock back a few centuries. You might as well try to
govern England by the Book of Leviticus.

On the whole the German survey of our Indian Empire
is entirely favourable and even eulogistic. In the direction
of trade revival he certainly seems to insinuate that the
policy of the Government could and should have been more

86

A German on India

thorough, not only for the sake of supporting the industries
themselves, but also in order to relieve the pressure on the
land Where we have partially failed in other respects, he
is inclined to attribute the failure to unforeseen and even to
inevitable causes Thus the principles of our justice some-
times cause injustice- , the increase of population, itself the
evidence of successful government, has brought with it its
own complications , the suppression of the plague was
thwarted by religious susceptibilities It must be borne in
mind — and the fact may discount his conclusions — that the
Professor was on the staff of the ex-Crown Prince, and was
therefore in touch mainly if not entirely with the higher
officials of the State, and perhaps also only with those
Indians whom it was thought desirable that he should
meet He could not have seen intimately the life of the
people such as many of us know it But neither was he in
the position of some of our critics who fortify themselves
with the literature of their own side and with little else, in
oider to prove thetr preconceived theory that our rule is
entirely bad, vicious, and mischievous We know that
there are mistakes each individual amongst us probably
has some pet criticism of his own, but it is not uninstructive
to hear what a German has said even if he be not alto-
gether unbiassed, even if his knowledge is incomplete
Professor Usher of Washington University, has asked
* What has England given to India which the Germans
could not have given equally well ? and our Professor
supplies the answer Not railways, not telegraphs, not
irrigation, not even justice and education These might
have been given by Germany, but the experience of the
greatest colonizing nation, the unique capacity of the Eng-
hsh, as be puts it, for organization and government — these
things Germany could not have given, because they were

not hers to give, and the Professor closes his lecture by
dcddnng himself opposed to those Germans who would
like to see England s power in India exploded, and by
;xpresimg the hope that England may long maintain the
jfcpjJTtriucb ahnhaa *o well and worthily established.

87

DISCUSSION ON THE FOREGOING PAPER

A meeting of the Association was held on Monday, November 17, 1919,
when a paper was read by Stanley P Rice, Esq , ics, entitled, “ A
German on India ” Harold Cox, Esq , occupied the chair The follow
ing ladies and gentlemen, among others, were present Sir C Sankaran
Nair, c 1 e , Mr C E Buckland, c 1 1 , Mr M. de P Webb, cie, cbe,
and Mrs Webb, Mr W Coldstream, k 1 h , Major General Count A.
Cherep Spindovitch, Mr N C Sen, o b e , Mr J B Pennington, Mr
John C Nicholson, Mr G O W Dunn, Mr E B Havell, Mr and Mrs
H R Cook, Mr F J P Richter, Lady Jacob, Lady Katharine Stuart,
Captain P S Cannon, Mr J S Dhunjibhoy, Mrs Meyer, Miss Leach,
Mrs AMT Jackson, Mr G M Ryan, Mr W Trank, Colonel A, S
Roberts, Mr K. Gauba, Colonel and Mrs Aphn, Captain H J Inman,
Rev H U W Stanton, Colonel Bruce Kingsmill, Mr. S A Khan,
Mr B V. Jadhav, Mr B D Muthu, Mr H M Gvbbs, Mr F Pratt,
Mrs Debar, Mrs Collis, Mr W Carter, Mr S C Evans Williams,
Mr D L Patwardhan, Rev W L Broadbent, Mr Ramachandra Rau,
Mr K P Kotval, Major Taylor, Mr W F Dingwall, Mr R Grant
Brown, Mrs Hazel], Lieut Colonel C L Swaine, 1 m s. (retired)

7 he paper was then read

The Chairman Ladies and Gentlemen, I need hardly say bow much
we have enjoyed Mr Rice's paper (Hear, hear ) I think most of us
will agree with nearly all of it My own criticisms are almost entirely
confined to the question of the countervailing cotton duties I know
that Lancashire is very much blamed for the attitude she has taken up
with regard to this question Let us frankly admit, from the business
point of view, Jt was purely selfish, but I would like to ask whether, from
an imperial point of view, it was a wrong attitude Mr Rice has assumed
that the only interest involved was that of the Indian manufacturer. I
submit that there was another and much larger interest involved— namely,
the interest of the Indian consumer And I cannot see that there was
anything wrong in England insisting that the interest of the Indian con
sumer should be considered as well as that of the Bombay manufacturer
After all, India is a very poor country 1 he men do not use much clothing,
it is true, but the women use a fair amount They are all poor people Is
it right that they should be taxed to swell the profits of a handful of
Bombay manufacturers ? That is what it really comes to I remember
once putting it to a wealthy Bombay manufacturer “ Think of all these
millions of people in India , they will all be taxed in order to increase
your profits.” What do you think his answer was? “They are only

88

A German on India

common people they do not matter ” Under the old system, when the
Indian manufacturer was put on a parity with the Lancashire manu-
facturer in order that there should be fair play to the Indian consumer,
was the Indian cotton trade in such a bad condition ? I remember going
over a big mill in India, and they showed me their balance sheet for the
last thirty years The average dividend had been 35 per cent That does
not look as if they wanted favourable tariffs to bolster them up Therefore
I submit that this question of the countervailing cotton duties cannot be
settled by merely drawing a contrast between Lancashire and Bombay
You have also to take into account the vast majority of people in India
who want their clothing cheap I entirely agree with what Mr Rice said
— that, after all, the important question is not tariffs On both sides people
exaggerate the importance of tariffs The important question is the
development of the country That is now taking place in India, and you
have big industries springing up throughout a considerable part of India
Whether it is good or bad it is hard to say, but looking at our own gigantic
manufacturing towns one wonders whether the rest of the world are going
to imitate their example On the other hand the Indian peasant, living
all the year round in his little village, has probably a better time than his
brother who spends three quarters of the year at least stifled in Bombay
However, that is a thing which is on the knees of the gods

I imagine, although Mr Rice did not expressly say so, that underlying
his paper is the consideration of what the future Government of India is
going to be, and therefore I think he was perfectly justified in taking an
impartial picture of the past, such as a German critic could present 1 he
future of the Government of India is not on the knees of the gods, but on
the knees of Mr Montagu — perhaps not an altogether desirable substitute
When people put forward their demand for changes in the Government
of India on the ground that in the past the Government has been bad,
I think they spoil their case If they put it forward on the ground that
the mental atmosphere of India is changing, as it is all over the world, and
that institutions must be changed to meet that alteration in the mental
atmosphere, I think that argument is a sound one, but to base it, as
people in India do, and also people nearer home in Ireland, on abuse
of what has taken place in the past seems to me to be an altogether
unsound method of argument, and in the mam entirely mischievous.
(Hear, hear ) I do not propose to discuss Mr Montagu’s schemes here ,
I only wish to point out this — that Englishmen in India have accomplished
a gigantic task We have enabled people who had previously no conception
whatever of what we call self government to imbibe that conception, at any
rate to a certain extent— possibly 5 per cent of the population. That is
a very great accomplishment Let us be careful that we do not, m the
hope of getting to that new world which our politicians are so fond of
picturing, scrap all the good that we have placed to our record in the
world behind us (Loud applause )

Major General Count A Cherep Spiridovitch said that he was
editor of a newspaper, Slavta, in Moscow during the Bolshevist time, 50
that he knew what revolution meant. After thirty-six years of very close

A German on India

89

sudy of foreign policy, he had arrived at the conclusion that India had
greatly benefited by the British brains In order to avoid wars, in his
opinion, the easiest and surest way would be to influence at least three-
quarters of the world by British brains The fears that Russia had designs
on India were absolutely groundless Russia had neier sought to supplant
the British in India, and never would, unless Bolshevism remained, which
he hoped it would not. Bolshevism has made nobody happy, except
criminals released from prisons Bolshevism destroys everything, rebuilds
nothing, and can exist only on old resources until they are exhausted
It is plunder, robbery, forgery and murder Having heard at many
Hindoo meetings some speakers, like Commander Ken worthy, m p , who
raised false hopes among the Hindoos that the Russians might help the
revolutionists in India, the General thought it his sacred duty to give the
most categorical denial to those statements as absolutely false The
Hindoos must know that the chief point of Bismarck s and the Kaiser’s
policy was not to permit the Anglo Russian alliance That is why ihe
Germans spread in the British Empire a he — that Russia covets India.
Some four million Germans always live in Russia, and simulating a
devotion to the dynasty, they reached very high situations, which
enabled them to influence the Press and all the place hunters and oppor-
tunists However, their great efforts to enroot in Russia a desire of
conquering or “ freeing ’ India met with the most decisive refusals And in
future it will be still less possible The chief secret of it is that the
Russians themselves were, and are, the sincerest admirers of British
administrative talent, and would like the same regime to be established in
Russia The Hindoos should understand that their neighbours, the
Jews, have regained Palestine, from which they can exploit mercilessly
such a rich country as India. The Jews know also that British governors
would protect the Hindoos to the utmost, and therefore the Jews would
like to see Great Britain’s failure The Jews know well that they could
extract from the Hindoos all their resources only by dismembering the
Indian Empire “Divide et impera ’ That is why the Jews persuade
the Hindoos towards a revolution, and assure them that the Jews are also
an Asiatic nation, and “oppressed” as the Hindoos are All this is
a diabolical manoeuvre, which must be greatly apprehended

The Russians love the Hindoos, and therefore would like to prevent
them from being deserted by Britain, which would plunge India into an
ocean of blood, famine and mire The late Russian author Leonid
Andreieff wrote “ The Russians believe in Englishmen as in God ”
Being President of the Anglo Latino Slav League, the General hoped
that the 200 million Slavs and the 150 or 200 million Latins in Europe
and m three Americas will soon understand that the only way to prevent
wars, with all their calamitous consequences, is to be led by British
brams An American thinker and expert, Mr. C W Barron, writes
“ The Englishman is not outclassed in mental and physical balance by
any nation on the earth ” The Hindoos must know that all the leaders
of the Russian revolution, like Professor Miliukoff, Tchaikowsky, Burtzeff,
etc , honestly and publicly recognized that the former Imperial regime in

90

A German on India

Russia was a real paradise on earth in comparison with what was brought
by the revolution My sixty odd forecasts {vide the Christian Common-
wealth) having been realized, I can foretell the greatest unheard-of
upheaval in India in case she should start a revolution I always sign my
name under my forecast, and do it willingly under this one, sure that
I shall never be contradicted by the facts

Mr B. V. Jadhav, m a , llb (of Kolhapur), acknowledged the great
debt of India to England England had given them the idea of
nationality and the idea of co-partnership English education and
English government had made these things accessible to them. He was
glad that Indian people were taking advantage of them and improving
their conditions, and under the new laws he was hopeful that great strides
would be made With regard to the countervailing duties, it seemed to
him that the profits would go into the pockets of the mill owners, whereas
they ought to go into the pockets of the Government They would then
be used for the public benefit, which would be better than their being used
to swell the profits of the mill owners The labouring classes were very
much trodden down by the mill and factory owners, and therefore, if the
Government of India gave their attention to the misenes of the labouring
people, it would be much appreciated They had to work long hours in
the mills , their physical condition was deteriorating, consumption was
making great strides, and therefore it was the duty of the Government to
devote its attention to the amelioration of these conditions He advocated
a tax on the mill-owners in the shape of an excess profits tax The well-
being of their operatives ought to be a charge on the profits of the mill-
owners They must endeavour to avoid the mistakes that had been made
in other countries He was grateful to the great British Empire for what
they had done for India (Hear, hear )

Mr Pratt said he wished to approach the much-debated question
of the countervailing duties from a somewhat different point of view
The Chairman had said they ought to concentrate their attention upon
the interests of the Indian consumer, but he was unable to see how the
goods would be made any cheaper to the consumer by the imposition of
a countervailing excise duty which would pro tanto increase the cost of
production for the Indian manufacturer and make it more difficult for him
to compete with the Lancashire manufacturer, whereas, if there were no
countervailing duty it was obvious that the Indian manufacturer could put
a cheaper article on the market It therefore appeared to him that the
Indian consumer would be better off without the countervailing duty
Lady Katharine Stuart said it was perplexing to know where the
truth lay when observers saw us bo differently. On the one hand, German
criticism accused us of inefficiency in certain respects , upon the other
Monsieur Spmdovitch desired to place the whole world under British
administration Perhaps she would be expressing the feelings of those
present if she responded that they felt that where they had lacked efficiency
it was when they had failed to illustrate Christian ideals , and where they,
under Divine blessing, had succeeded, it was when they had realized and

A German on India

9i

demonstrated their God, as Self-revealed to them, the Good Physician
and the Great Shepherd of all Folds The League of Nations had done
splendid service in co ordinating the Red Cross centres and pooling its
resources, and if this method were extended to the other needs of
humanity it might be the beginning of better things for Russia and the
whole world, the resources of the whole and prosperous being willingly
placed at the disposal of the sick and needy, which was the Christian
ideal of civilization

Mr Ramachandra Rao, referring to the lecturer’s remarks with regard
to Brahmimsm, said that although the influence of Brahmimsm was not
so great as formerly, no decent Brahmin desired it to resume its old
power, but wished to do his best to meet modern requirements

The Chairman Ladies and Gentlemen, before asking the Lecturer to
reply, I should like to say a word or two more about the countervailing
duties, because one of the gentlemen who has spoken did not quite follow
my argument If you have a customs duty levied on imported goods
only, without any countervailing duty on home made goods, the vendor of
home made goods will charge the same pnee for them as is charged for
the imported goods, plus the duty The consumer pays the duty in both
cases But in the case of the imported goods the Government gets the
duty paid by the consumer , whereas in the case of the goods made at
home the private manufacturer gets the duty and puts it in his pocket
Every Government has to raise revenue to meet its expenditure, and if the
Government uses its power to tax the general body of the community in
order to put a special profit into the hands of one group of manufacturers
it has to raise further revenue elsewhere In other words, the mass of the
people are taxed first to enhance the profit of the private manufacturers,
and then they are taxed again for the general purposes of government
expenditure Therefore it seems to me that, from the point of view of
fair play, it is right that any tax on imported goods should be counter
vailed by a corresponding tax on home made goods

It is hardly necessary for me to say that very few of us understood
Mr Rice to criticize Brahmimsm at all I think the keynote of his
remark was that, while England had rendered many services to India,
India had rendered many services to England by showing how the Indian
religious idea might be of advantage to the world (Applause )

The Lecturer, replying to the criticisms on his paper, said he would
like to suggest a possible modification of what the Chairman had said
regarding the Indian consumer A countervailing duty meant practically
Free Trade, and raised the question as to the propriety of protecting infant
industries It was true that the cotton industry in India had been going
on since 1860, but there was an admitted need for the growth of the
industry The great need was for machinery He agreed with the
Chairman that it might be a doubtful blessing, because they did not want
to turn all their smiling ncefields and waving coconuts into stacks of smoke
blackened chimneys , neither did they want to turn the healthy life of the
villages into the more or less stifled life of the towns The standard of
living called for improvement, but the Indians would not do much m that

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A German on India

direction for themselves As regards the pnce of cloth, the majority of the
Indians in Madras did not wear mill manufactured cloths, though it might
be different in other parts of India In Madras nine tenths of the in
habitants would be found to be wearing ordinary handloom made cloths
made by the weavers in their own villages, and it was only the Brahmins
who wore the English cloth The truth was that the countervailing duties
on cotton had been regarded simply as a great grievance, and the Indian
Government had been very sympathetic towards Indian opinion on the
subject Indians could not help feeling that the effect of these duties was
to sacrifice India to 1 ancashire As in the case of volunteering, it was
not so much the question of revenue or profits or of the position of the
consumer to which Indians were looking as the removal of this grievance
A hearty vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to the Chairman and
the Lecturer, and the proceedings terminated

EAST INDIA ASSOCIATION

It has been proposed to present a testimonial to Dr Pollen for his services
to this Association Readers of the “ Asiatic Review are invited to send
subscriptions ( limited to jQi) to the Secretary , East India Association,
3, Victoria Strut , Westminster, S W i The list will be dosed in March*

STANLEY RICE,

Hon Secretary

93

WAR AND POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS
IN PERSIA

By C A. Walpole, o b e

Now that Persia has at last determined to put her house
in order and develop her undoubtedly large natural
resources, railways must come at no distant date That a
railway connecting Central Persia with the Persian Gulf,
and thereby short circuiting the present enormously round-
about and expensive route via Baghdad and the River
Tigris, or even the contemplated lorry and rail route to
Lbe M echterranean v) a the Baghdad Rad way, of primary
importance, there can be no doubt , and that such a line
should at the same time tap the fertile district of the
Karun Valley would seem equally desirable As already
stated, and as can be seen by a glance at a map, the
alignment Mohammerah Dizful presents no great difficulties
This alignment was surveyed in detail by the Persian Rail-
ways Syndicate on behalf of the Persian Government as
long ago as 1913, and a reconnaissance of the country
northward as far as Khoramabad and Hamadan was also
made The maps here show the country as extremely
mountainous, but as a matter of fact, by follow ing certain
valleys and gorges, a good and perfectly feasible alignment
was found, which it was the intention at once to survey in
detail, had not war interrupted the Persian Railways
Syndicate's operations Such a line, besides serving the
Karun Valley and the grain-pi oducing districts around
Dizful, Jerrahi, etc , would tap one of the highest and most
fertile parts of Persia — namely, the country round Burujird
and Kermanshah, and enable the produce therefrom to be

94 War and Post-War Developments in Persia

shipped to the Gulf at a cost even less than that of the
grain shipped from Bombay or Karachi. It has been said
by some that there is a convenient outlet for the produce
of Central Persia via Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, but this
is not so. The freight by this route to-day from, say,
Hamadan to Basrah would, at the very least, amount to
^io per ton — which is more than the normal price of
wheat delivered in this country, but by a direct railway to
the Gulf it would not amount to more than £2 or ^3
per ton — a rate which compares favourably with the cost
of rail transport of much of the grain shipped from India.
Moreover, railways are a necessity for efficient administra-
tion, and for the economical distribution of oil and other
merchandise, and also for the development of industries
generally both for internal consumption and for export.

In Southern and Central Persia, at any rate, fuel is
practically non-existent, the little there is being wood
collected from the scrubby growth along the Karun and
Diz rivers, a purely local supply and insufficient even for
local requirements, beside being prohibitive in cost. For
the proper development of agricultural and commercial
industries, a cheap and plentiful supply of fuel is, of course,
essential, and in this respect Nature has come to the rescue
of Persia with oil. The transportation of oil by caravan
is, needless to say, most expensive, both in the cost of
transport and in the heavy leakage consequent upon this
method of carriage, nor is distribution by lorry or cart any
more satisfactory in either of these respects — leakage
frequently amounting to as much as 8 per cent. Trans-
portation by rail is far cheaper than either and much more
satisfactory, as has been proved in India, where leakage,
even with two transhipments, only averages about percent.

It has been suggested by some that a good motor-lorry
service from, say, Isfahan to the Persian Gulf is all that is
required to bring about the much-desired commercial and
industrial development of Persia, and there are even some
people who profess to consider that the present caravan

War and Post-War Developments in Persia 95

system is sufficient for the purpose. I would like to take
this opportunity of insisting most emphatically, on the basis
of my extensive knowledge of the country and of its
transport problems, that this is not so — I have already
indicated the prohibitive cost of transport by motor-lorry,
rail, and river to Basrah via Baghdad. To further
emphasize the point, I would like to give the respective
costs from Mohammerah to Isfahan ; these are as follows :

(a) By river to Ahwaz and on to Isfahan by caravan,
about £20 per ton.

(b) By river to Ahwaz and on to Isfahan by motor-lorry,
£15 per ton.

(r) By rail, Mohammerah to Isfahan, about £2 per ton.

The river caravan figure is the only one of the above
figures actually available, but it must not be thought that
those for lorry and rail are mere guess-work on my part.
For a lorry road I have excellent data from a new road
which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company have just completed
between Dari-Khazinah (12 miles from Shusyat on the
Upper Karun River) to their oil-fields, and for the railway
I have certain estimates actually compiled when the survey
was made by the Persian Railways Syndicate.

That it will take some little time to construct railways
cannot be denied, whereas, as pointed out by Lieut.-Colonel
Napier recently before the Royal Geographical Society, a
rough motor-lorry service could be introduced much sooner,
but I would like to point out that the construction of
suitable roads through any part of the mountainous ranges
which separate the seaboard from the rich provinces of
Central Persia, would be costly and take time. In favour
of th/s suggestion as a temporary measure, however, is the
fact that the military in Mesopotamia would no doubt be
ready to supply a certain number of lorries on the spot ;
petrol is already at Viand from the Anglo-Persian Oil
Company, and perhaps some of the existing caravan routes
could, with a certain amount of patching-up, be made
sufficiently passable for this kind of traffic. That the

96 War and Post-War Developments tn Persia

experiment on a commercial basis would be tried in the
near future, there is little doubt, and as a temporary
measure, pending the completion of railways, it will doubt-
less be of value in carrying on the existing trade I am
convinced, however, and have endeavoured to show, that
for permanent development on a large scale, Persia must
have railways , and when these are built any lorries which
have meantime been employed in maintaining the existing
trade of Persia could no doubt be used to great advantage
as feeders for the railway

One of the greatest, if not the greatest difficulty which
will have to be faced, whether the work in hand be road-
making, irrigation, or any other constructional work, will
be that of labour The position in this respect, even
before the war, was none too easy, and it is now one of
the acutest problems of the day The Persian is, taken all
round, a good labourer, but he has many irons in the fire,
and cannot be relied upon to remain with you throughout
the entire year, especially when the date and grain seasons
come round , nor to day, with the big demand for labour
in Mesopotamia does there appear to be sufficient to meet
the demands of all Of skilled labour there is practically
none, and even before the war artisans such as fitters,
riveters, engine drivers, etc , had mainly to be imported
from India, the possible exceptions m th.s respect being
carpenters and masons, but here again the demand far
exceeds the supply Experience in other countries has,
however, shown that, with the serious opening up of the
country, more native labour will come forward although
during the war, when the wages offered were at record
height, and when, owing to famine, the shortage of food,
clothing, etc , was acute, there was considerable difficulty
in obtaining labour , this was no doubt, however, due in a
great measure to the large demands of the Mesopotamian
Expeditionary Force and the unsettled conditions generally
The Persian Government are quite naturally extremely
keen that local labour should be encouraged and utilized

War and Post- War Developments tn Persia 97

to the utmost extent, and every effort in this direction is
being made in both official and commercial circles. It
will, however, interest you to know that the artisans
who have been imported from India (and the Anglo*
Persian Oil Company have during the past ten years
imported many thousands of such workmen) have on the
whole been quite satisfactory — the men stand the climate
well and their intercourse with the Persian is quite friendly ,
many have, in fact, married Persian wives and settled down
The war has done much to draw Persia and India together
— not only have the respective peoples, as it were, been
“ introduced ” to one another, but the trade relations
between the two countries have been very much
strengthened Many commodities which before the war
were obtained exclusively from Europe had, through
necessity at first, to be obtained from India, when it was
discovered that quite a number of these articles could be
purchased as well and as cheaply as from home Instances
of this are chemicals, cement, and boxwood Especially
can I speak of the article last mentioned ot which the
Anglo-Persian ^Oil Company imported from India alone
approximately half a million boxes for the casing of petrol
for the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force

A short review of the Oil Company s operations during
the war should prove of interest The company’s refinery
is situated at a spot called Braun on Abadan Island, some
nine miles below Mohammerah on the Shat-el Arab River
Here the company employs some 60 Europeans, a large
number of Persian subjects, as well as some 2,000 Indians,
apart entirely from a further large staff of Europeans,
Persians, and Indians at Mohammerah, on the oil-fields
and on the route of the pipe-line In 1909 the visage
consisted of possibly 50 sleepy natives , to-day there are
probably over 10,000 inhabitants The declaration of war
with Turkey found Abadan particularly well equipped to
render assistance to an expeditionary force to the Persian
Gu\f. The works were \n a position to supply any quanmy

VOL XVI.

G

98 War and Post-War Developments in Persia

of petrol, kerosene, and fuel oil , there was a particularly
well-equipped workshop, foundry, slipway, and a number
of river steamers and motor-boats All were, needless to
say, at once put at the disposal of the expeditionary force,
and later, when it was decided to construct a fleet of light-
draft gunboats, tugs, and barges, this work was under-
taken at Abadan , Throughout the entire campaign the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company supplied the total oil, petrol,
and fuel oil requirements of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary
Foice, and at the same time were shipping large quantities
of oil home for the British Navy On no occasion was
there any hitch m the working of any of these supplies
Moreover, it was from one of the company s ships that
hostilities against the Tuiks commenced, naval guns being
mounted on the steam tug Sardar i-Naft , which bombarded
and demolished the fortress of Fao This was on Novem-
ber 6 1914 Two days later the original expeditionary
force, under General Delamaine, landed on Turkish soil
almost immediately opposite to the A P O C Refinery at
Abadan Here the Turks made their first attack on the
British a week later but were repulsed Three days later
the British attacked the Turks, advancing along the right
bank of the Shat-el Arab Ri\ er to a point almost immediately
opposite to Mohammerah The enemy were severely
defeated and fled towards Basrah, which they, however,
evacuated on November 21 without firing a shot An
amusing incident of those operations was the attempt by
the Turks to block the river below Basrah A large
Hamburg-Amenca liner, named the Ekbatana , and tw f o
small Turkish ships were scuttled by the Turks These
proceedings occupied fully a fortnight, and were carried
out with the utmost care From Mohammerah I could
obtain a fair view of the operations, and could not help
admiring the painstaking methods of the Turks. A small
gap had, however, inadvertently been left between the
Ekbatana and the right bank of the river, and, three days
after the battle last referred to, news came down from

War and Post-War Developments in Persia 99

Basrah that the Turks had deserted the town, and that the
Arabs were looting it. H.M.S. Espiegle and one of Lynchis’
River steamers made a dash for the gap, which was passed
through without mishap. This effort to block the channel
was, in fact, entirely futile, and it was found later that two
ocean-going steamers could even pass one another without
difficulty.

A rather amusing episode is said to have occurred in
Mohammerah just prior to the official declaration of hostili-
ties by Turkey on Great Britain. Notwithstanding the
friendly relations professed towards us by Turkey up till
almost the eve of the war, great tension had existed for
some time between the two nations in the Persian Gulf,
at any rate. The only protection afforded to British
interests in Mesopotamia at this time were H.M.S. Espiegle
and Odin, the former being particularly detailed to watch
over Abadan and Mohammerah. She took up her position
at Mohammerah just inside the mouth of the Karun River,
this being Persian and therefore neutral water, of course,
though the Shat-el-Arab River, into which the Karun runs,
was Turkish water. The commander of the Turkish river
flotilla seemed to think it his business to warn the Espiegle
that in lying in this position she was committing a breach
of international law, and, with this object in mind, he
proceeded to issue daily ultimatums, which, however, as
they were systematically ignored by the Espiegle , he very
obligingly extended. Finally he decided to warn the
British commander in person, and, with this intention, he
one morning called on the British gunboat. During the
interview, which was of a most friendly kind, the British
commander offered the Turk some liquid refreshment,
which the latter accepted, observing, however, that his
creed precluded his indulging in anything stronger than
“ sherbet.” This is not a very popular beverage in His
Majesty’s Navy. However, the order was at once (though
somewhat dubiously) given by the British commander to
his Indian servant to bring sherbet for his Turkish guest.

ioo War and Post-War Developments in Persia

Somewhat to his surprise the servant (a resourceful fellow,
as will be seen later, and moreover one who felt his
responsibility in maintaining the hospitable reputation
of the British Navy) shortly returned with a sparkling
frothy pink drink It was a hot day, and the Turkish
commander’s eyes glistened with pleasure as he raised
the glass to his lips and drank it down The all-important
interview continued some little time longer, when it was
observed that the Turkish commander was becoming
“restless” The British commander suggested another
sherbet, but this was hysterically refused, and the Turk
took a hurried farewell The commander of H M S
Espiegle was nonplussed What would account for the
sudden and extraordinary change in the attitude of his
Turkish colleague ? It occurred to him to query his servant
as to where he had procured the sherbet “ Oh, master,
replied that faithful worthy, “we have no such drink as
sherbet on board, so, in order to maintain the reputation
of the ship, I manufactured the sherbet “ How ? in-
quired the commander “ I mixed a little rosewater with
a lemon squash, and then, to make it fizz, I added some
of that white powder which master keeps in his cabin
“ Fetch me the bottle,” replied the commander The
servant brought it — it was Eno’s Fruit Salt 1

It should be noted that it was within a few miles of the
Sheikh of Mohammerah s territory that the first shot was
fired, and, had it not been for Sheikh Khazzal s unswerving
loyalty and staunchness to the British, our task in this
theatre of the war would have been much more difficult
For weeks before the actual declaration of hostilities between
Great Britain and Turkey the latter from Basrah, a very
powerful base and only some fifteen miles distant from the
Sheikh’s residence, were in turn cajoling and threatening
him to throw in his lot with them. The military power
of the Turks was evident on all sides, whereas from the
British the Sheikh had only the verbal assurance of the
Consul on which to rely Though the time must have been

War and Post-War Developments m Persia 101

a most anxious one, and the situation one requiring the
greatest diplomacy and courage, never for one moment did
the Sheikh waver, and, more than this, he placed his entire
resources and unique local knowledge entirely gratuitously
at our disposal

One of the most important, if not quite the most impor-
tant, questions of the day in regard to Mesopotamia and
Arabistan is that of dredging the Shat-el-Arab bar This
bar, which commences at Fao and which is some seven
miles in extent, is a severe thorn in the side of all shipping
entering the ports of Basrah, Mohammerah and Abadan
No vessel whose draft exceeds 18 feet 6 inches can at all
times with certainty negotiate the bar, with the conse-
quence that practically every ocean going vessel, both
inward and outward, requires to be lightered, a most
expensive, slow, and sometimes dangerous business As
matters stand at present, it is no exaggeration to say that
a 6,000 to 8,000 ton cargo ship is delayed anything up to
ten days, or roughly, one third of the time it would take
for such a ship to perform the entire journey from Basrah
to a British port if no bar existed This, during the war,
when tonnage was so scarce, was a most important matter
to the British , nor to-day, with acute competition for trade
supremacy among the nations of the world, can it be
regarded in a much lesser light Calculating on the
number of ships loaded and discharged during the war at
Abadan (of which, of course, the most precise figures are at
my disposal), the time saved, had no bar existed, would
have been equivalent, in the case of cargo boats, to about
1 6 per cent, and in the case of oil tank steamers to 9 per
cent, of the total shipping which had to be employed As
regards the difficulties in the way of dredging, this question
has been very thoroughly gone into by more than one
expert, and the work has been pronounced as likely to be
neither unduly costly nor lengthy The bottom is soft,
there are apparently no rocks , the current of the river is
swift, and the tendency of the banks suitable for training.

102 War and Post-War Developments in Persia

I may add a few lines on the position of Germany in the
Persian Gulf prior to the war. Prior to 1900 German
interests were scarcely, if at all, represented in the Persian
Gulf. Early in that year, a certain Robert Wonckhaus,
a Hamburg merchant of no particular status, and with little
if any capital, opened up business in Lingah ; he appeared
to prosper exceedingly, and some five years later the firm
of Wonckhaus and Co. were represented in most of the
more important Gulf ports, including Basrah, Mohammerah,
Bushire, and Bahrain. They traded in all kinds of goods,
both import and export, and were employed as agents of
the Hamburg-America Line. At first very few of this line 's
ships visited the Gulf, only about one every five or six
weeks in 1909, but these gradually increased, till in 19 r 3
their ships were calling on an average once a fortnight.
That they were heavily subsided by the German Govern-
ment is pretty certain, though latterly, at any rate, I should
not think any subsidy was necessary, as their outward
freight (from Europe) was assured, in that they had
obtained the contract to carry out the material required for
the laying of the Baghdad Railway line northward from
Baghdad, and, as regards return freight, favoured by their
irregular methods of dealing and by good harvests, they
were able to fill their ships with grain for Hamburg.
Their methods were enterprising as well as unscrupulous,
they seemed always ready to buy grain, even when the
advice received by British firms indicated falling prices at
home ; but this may be explained by the fact that the
Germans were none too “particular” in their dealings with
the Persian Customs. There is an export duty on cereals
from Persia of 7 per cent., and this the Germans were
experts at “dodging.” On a large bulk-shipment of grain
this is not difficult, as the amount declared by the shipper
is difficult to check ; it can, in fact, only be checked by the
draft of the steamer, which method the Persian Customs
authorities found it difficult to carry out. The matter was
brought to the notice of the British Chamber of Commerce

War and Post-War Developments in Persia 103

in Mohammerah, figures of the declared quantities of ship-
ments made by the Germans were obtained, and it was
decided to write to the British Consul in Hamburg, re-
questing him to endeavour to procure the out-turn figures
at the latter port ; war, however, broke out about that time
and the matter dropped. Though our German competitors
had these two big advantages over the British — namely, a
subsidy, and evasion of Customs duties, or at least a large
portion thereof — there is no denying that they owed some
of their success to their enterprise and industriousness as
well as to the unscrupulousness of their methods. The
representatives of Messrs. Wonckhaus were one and all,
from the partner in charge down to the junior assistant,
extremely keen ; they all seemed to know their business
thoroughly, and, more important still, they made a careful
study of the native, not only from the commercial point of
view, but also from the social. All spoke the language
fluently, and they would go out of their way to meet and
entertain the more influential local merchants and others.
In these respects, though not in ihe others to which I have
referred, the British trader might copy the German to
advantage. The object of this was amply demonstrated,
after the outbreak of war, when Messrs. Wonckhaus’s staff,
led by the notorious Wassmuss, exchanged the commercial
for the political cloak, scattering over Southern Persia and
spreading anti-British propaganda with much success and
with the gravest possible injury to Persia. Apropos of
Wassmuss, I would like to mention a story which is little
known and which further illustrates a well-known charac-
teristic of the German race, both high and low. Some two
years prior to the Armistice Wassmuss was taken and held
captive at Kazvin ; he was treated with the greatest con-
sideration and was allowed some freedom on giving his
parole, but — German-like — he broke his parole almost as
soon as it was given.

I will conclude with a paragraph on the prospects of
British enterprise in Southern Persia. With Russian

104 War and Post War Developments m Persia

influence removed (the Persian “man m-the-street " never
could understand why the British, whose characteristics are
so widely different from those of the Russians, should
associate themselves with the latter, whom they [the
Persians] most cordially disliked), and with the disappear-
ance of dishonest German competition there is, in my
opinion, in Persia an exceptionally fine field for British
trade Heretofore, even with her resources little known,
her abominably bad communications her lack of establish-
ment of law and order, trading with Persia has developed,
and, now that these deficiencies are about to be remedied
by means of the understanding arrived at under the new
British Persian agreement a period of great development
for Persia and mutual prosperity may be anticipated The
personal relations between the Englishman and the Persian
have always been most friendly , at least, that has always
been my own experience Their business methods are
straight and their friendships are sincere , the working
classes are loyal and honest (I may say that during my
entire stay in the Persian Gulf I have had the same
personal servant and never wish for a better one), and
there is plenty of evidence to show that they are quick to
appreciate and adopt modern methods We have trained
quite a number as engineers, riveters, motor-drivers, and
also, on the clerical side, as book-keepers and cashiers I
see no reason why the Persians should not in due course
become fully as competent in all these respects as
Europeans From the sporting point of view the instinct
is there, as also is the practical side, in so far as there
has been any opportunity of its manifestation The
Persian is a fine rider and a good shot. No present is so
highly prized as a sporting gun, a pair of field-glasses, or a
hunting-knife The Persian is, moreover, where oppor-
tunity exists, an excellent shikari, shooting over dogs is
no uncommon practice with him, and hawking is an ancient
sport of theirs In a country where some of the finest
pomes in the world are bred, it need scarcely be said that

War and Pest-War Developments in Persia 105

riding is second nature to them. Of polo, racing, etc.,
they of course cannot know much, though the present
Shah and his predecessors have held annual meetings at
the imperial summer residence near Teheran for many
years past, and his Imperial Majesty is to-day, I under-
stand, President of the Sporting Club in Teheran.
When I first arrived in the Persian Gulf sport was hardly
known, a small annual gymkhana meeting among the
Europeans in Mohammerah and Basrah being all there
was. Three years later the Europeans in Mohammerah
were able, owing to the keen support of the Sheikh of
Mohrah and the late Sheikh Mubarrak of Koweit, to hold
two most successful meetings run on fairly “ pucca ” lines,
and the entries included as many native-owned horses as
European. Today there are “pucca" race-meetings
twice and sometimes three times annually in Ahwaz,
Mohammerah, Basrah, Amara, Kut, Nasiriyah, Baghdad,
and Tekrit ; the proceedings are on first-class lines,
permanent courses have been constructed, there is no lack
of entries, and the class of pony, especially of the Arab, is
very good. There is a good club in Mohammerah, where
tennis, golf, billiards, and other games are played, of which
the Sheikh is a keen member, as also his Prime Minister,
Haji Rais. In Ahwaz, Abadan, and at the oil-fields,
there are also clubs.

io6

THE ARMENIAN QUESTION

By Aram Raffi

(We regTet to announce that the author, who was Secretary of the
Armenian Bureau in London, passed away on Wednesday, November 12,
1919 at 6 20 pm — E d A R )

One of the chief diplomatic problems of the nineteenth century was the
Eastern Question This problem always came up on the conclusion of
any war in which 1 urkey was concerned in one way or another On every
one of these occasions the question of the protection of the Christian
subjects of the Porte was brought forward. New treaties were signed and
schemes for the protection of the Christians were drawn up by the European
Great Powers Turkey was put under new obligations to carry out these
schemes and the Powers pledged themselves to see that she did so But
these schemes were never executed Outrages and massacres were
committed during times of peace , the Great Powers sent protests to the
Porte, fresh promises were made by Turkey, but they .have never been
fulfilled Every time that a massacre of the Christian subjects of Turkey
took place, the Eastern Question again came to the front Hundreds of
thousands of Armenian women and innocent children were barbarously
put to death This aroused the indignation and sympathy of the whole
world , fresh representations were made, schemes were drawn up for the
protection of Armenian Christians, but it was generally recognized that
these schemes would lead to nothing unless the execution of them was
enforced by the Powers Some of the Powers agreed that compulsion
should be used, but in. one case it was said that Russia was against such
action , therefore diplomats decided that if any country were to fight for
the liberation of Armenia, it would reopen the Eastern Question and lead
to a European war From this prospect all nations recoiled The
Question again remained on paper, resulting in fresh representations to the
Porte, and fresh Turkish promises The last time the Armenian Question
came to the front, after many outrages had been committed, Russia
figured as Armenia’s champion, but it was said that Germany was the
obstacle to the final settlement of the Eastern Question However, the
Great Powers conceived a scheme for introducing reforms in Armenia It
was proposed to appoint a High Commissioner to undertake the execution
of the reforms After long discussion the Committee of Union and
Progress consented to this, fearing that, if the scheme were not executed
speedily, Russia would take this as a pretext to occupy Armenia Germany
was against having one High Commissioner and proposed to divide Armenia
into two zones of influence and send two High Commissioners, one for

The Armenian Question 107

each zone The Turkish Government tned to thwart this scheme and to
demand special privileges. A Swedish general actually proceeded to
Armenia as High Commissioner, appointed by the Great Powers, and with
the consent of the Porte. Such was the state of affairs at the outbreak of
the Great War. The Armenians cast in their lot with the Allies, formed
volunteer forces, and led the Russian armies into Armenia After the fall
of the Russian Government, and the revolution when the Bolsheviks were
in power, the Russian troops evacuated all the conquered parts of Armenia
For a long time the Armenians defended the front and checked the advance
of the Turks In Turkish Armenia a most horrible massacre took place ,
the whole Armenian population was deported into the interior of Arabia ,
a great number of the deportees were done to death during the journey
Thus, out of two millions of Armenians in Turkish Armenia, nearly half
were wiped out Now the Turks were trying to invade the Caucasus, where
two millions of Armenians are living After this, Bolsheviks came into
power, the Caucasus declared itself independent of the Bolshevik Govern-
ment, and the three chief populations of the Caucasus — Armenians,
Georgians, and Tartars — formed themselves into independent republics
The capital of the Armenian Republic is Erivan
The Russian Armenians concentrated themselves in their territory, and,
singlehanded, checked the advance of the Turks m the Caucasus, thus
facilitating the march of General Allenby to Mesopotamia and Palestine
by making it necessary to divert many Turkish troops to the Caucasus
In the Armistice concluded with Turkey (November 2, lqiB) the follow-
ing stipulation concerning Armenia was made

“ In case of disorder in the six Armenian vilayets, the Allies reserve to
themselves the right to occupy any part of them ”

Since that date great disorder, accompanied by murder and pillage, has
prevailed, and is sull prevailing, m the six vilayets mentioned in the
Armistice, but those regions have never been occupied by the Allies and
the Armenian Question is not yet settled The Paris Conference is waiting
till America makes up its mind whether or not she will accept the mandate
for Armenia Pending the decision of the diplomats, Armenian blood is
being freely shed British troops, which were a safeguard to the Armenian
population, have been withdrawn from the Caucasus In consequence
Turks, Kurds, and Tartars, are combining in an attack on the Armenian
Republic, with a view to wiping out the two millions of Armenians in the
Caucasus The following telegram speaks for itself

“ The situation in Armenia is literally terrible The Turco Tartar
troops have completely surrounded the country, and taken Davalu and
Kulp, on the frontier of the Kars. The incessant attacks of the Kurds,
capturing officers, soldiers, machine-guns, and Turkish cannon, have
necessitated the beginning of evacuation. Many thousands of Armenian
refugees coming from Turkey, and installed in districts near the frontier,
find themselves compelled to make another exodus.

“There is a Mussulman agitation in progress The insurgent Tartars
threaten the Ouloukhanlou-Echmiadzin railway. The centre of the

io8

The Armenian Question

agitation is at Erzerum, Nakhichevan, and Baku, whence the enemy forces
receive money, arms, and ammunition Fighting has taken place during the
evacuation of Kars The departure of the English and the lack of ammuni-
tion reduces our forces to inactivity We cannot,” the Premier concludes,
“understand why Pans does not send us help We are completely
abandoned ”

Armenia’s tragedy is twofold she was a victim of the war , now she is
a victim of the peace She was persecuted by her enemies , now she is
almost deserted by her friends

109

TAO CHIEN’S RETURN TO THE COUNTRY

(A CHINESE MASTERPIECE)

By David Alec Wilson

The Chinese are impatient of verbosity, and say a man should put his
thought into the minimum of words. A common remark in this connec
tion is that the “ Masterpiece,” the ancient " Return to the Country ” of
Tao Chien, is the only long poem that is perfect , and as readers will see,
we would not call it long

It appears to me to be the finest i< 3 > II in literature, surpassing all the
rest m depth and clearness and beauty Only the defects of my translation
can leave room for doubt , and maybe the Chinese opinion may be shared
by many who can see through the mists of language the meaning of this
wonderful word picture It has something of the perfect daintiness of
“ The Tempest ”

Tao Chien, the author, “the poet of the Chrysanthems,” died in 427 of
our era at the age of sixty two, so that the “ Return to the Country ” may
have reached the hands of his contemporaries at the very time which the
Italians called “ the Night of the World,” when Alanc and the Goths were
plundering Rome and her belongings, and Augustine was writing for the
comfort of men his “City of God’ , in short, when the millennium of
confusion called in Europe “ the Middle Ages ' was about to begin.

The “poet of the Chrysanthems” would have been impossible, not
allowed to live at all, at any time since 1890 in modern Germany, and
even in England he might have been deported in time of war, unless,
which is unthinkable, he were in the pay of somebody I will not disguise
his peculiarities He was a poor scholar, and sought and found an
official career, and was promoted to be a magistrate, but after eighty-
three days he resigned that high promotion because he objected to the
obeisances required by “official 1 superiors, and had the rudeness to say
he could “ not crook the hinges of his back for five pecks of rice a day ”
It may help us to understand him to reflect that he would not take bribes,
so that the official perquisites he lost would be less tempting to him than
to others, and his wife abetted him So the historians expressly tell us,
and it is worth while to remember One of the best women in England
(Mrs Fawcett) said in my hearing not long ago “Whenever a man is
specially good, I ask about his wife, and find she has a hand in it ”
The wife of Tao Chien “ worked in the back garden, while he worked >n
the front ”

This wonderful man supported his family by cultivating a little ’and,
and might be called a humble gentleman farmer, but that phrase is mis-
leading. Even fifteen hundred years ago there had ceased to be what the
caste-ndden English call “ gentlemen ” in China, and game preserving
was only known to histonans. The most vulgar Chinaman had outgrown
the fashion of killing for the pleasure of killing Tao Chien gave most of
his strength to literary work that was never paid for, but did not neglect

J 1 o

Tao Chteris Return to the Country

his fields, and lived so modestly that he was free from worry, and said
himself that he had nothing to pray for but “length of years and lots
of liquor "

To this day his countrymen may be heard to wish, as for the chief
of blessings, to enjoy an old age like that of Tao Chien.

He would long ago have been forgotten, as he doubtless expected to be,
but for the “ Return to the Country,” which goes to the heart like some of
the best of the songs of Burns It may have seemed insignificant to him
self at first, and been intended to please his wife, “ the inner one ” But
his other -writings are too full of allusions to contemporary events to be
interesting or even intelligible now without notes that are tedious

It was very different when they first appeared He made official sinners
squirm They did all they could to silence him in vain The very
Imperor himself condescended to solicit him to accept an official post
But “in spite of the reiterated appeals of the Emperor," writes Tcheng-
Ki Tong, “ he would not budge, and never left home again " He gloried
in the freedom of private life Like Lord Rosebery, he had retired to
enjoy himself, and he did In reading his happy anticipations, we feel
for a moment even happier thin he could have been when he wrote them,
for now we know that they were all fulfilled

I will go home The thick'nmg weeds
Show how my home its master needs
There s nothing left me here to crave
My soul s been long enough a slave
1 he past is lost , but vain regret
A\ ould make my losses greater yet
J he future s left I is not too late
Upon it now to concentrate
I have not wandered far astray
But, for a little, lost my way,

And stumbled, but not far, and then —

I feel I’ve found the road again
Now lightly speeds my boat away ,

The bree/es with my garments play ,

As through the tangled creeks I steer,

I only ask what way is near ,

And homeward, homeward as I go,

The rising sun itself seems slow,

Till from afar my home I see
Look 1 look 1 they are expecting me,

My servants runn ng to the shore,

My children clust ring at the door *

Among the weeds chrysanthems shine,

And still its there, my own old pine

.But m I go, I cannot stand—

The children have me by the hand
From wine jars full I fill my cup ,

And, as we drink the liquor up,

I at the window loll to see
And feel the joy of being fret .

Then sit, and there, my heart to please.

At once 1 watch my favourite trees
And children playing on my knees.

Tao Chietts Return to the Country 1 1 1

There’s nothing that the world could give
Could draw me hence , so here I’ll live ,

And howsoe’er things go askew,

There’s nothing more for me to do
If any friends an hour would cheer,

They’ll find me, if they seek me, here
My garden’s all I want to see,

Its gate may now stay shut for me
Inside it, on my stick 1 lean,

Or sit me down to view the scene,

And, with uplifted head, behold
A world of beauties manifold
See lowland clouds unwilling rise,

Reluctant they to mount the skies
That weary bird, which seems so pressed,

Methinks, is making for its nest
Now shadows all in shade combine,

And still I stay beside my pine,

Still loath to leave my lonely pine 1
Home, home again 1 and hap, what may,

At home for ever now I'll stay.

Here, in my family, abide,

And never more 1 11 wander wide
On tedium I can never look
\\ hile I have light to read a book
The longest nights the dark months bring
Are not too long to play and sing

My men will come to call me forth
With them to plough the wak’ning earth,

When, after winter s wind and rain,

The world is all alive again
1 11 seek the fields by boat, and start
To climb the gorge in quiet cart,

Then o’er the giddy cliff I’ll go,

And watch the brooks that brimming flow,

And trees, that bud on every hand
As if the trees could understand
And join in joy at life renewed.

Shall we alone be thought subdued ?

Ask whither ? W hence ? And how and why ?

And whimper, when it s time to die ?

'1 is not for long Then why be sad ?

The end in sight — that makes me glad
I'm rtady now Content to stay,

I can enjoy a pleasant day,

And lengthen out the sunlit hours
Among my happy garden flowers
Riches and ranh \\\ never pn^e,

Nor yet post obit paradise ,

But on the hill I'll sing ray song.

And by the brook the vc^se prolong,

And work, in my allotted time,

With many a pleasing thought and rhyme
Content to live, and free from care ,

With hate contented, everywhere,

When Fate shall life no more allow,

Content to die. Fm ready now /

112

THE PARISHIONER

( Translated from the , ussian of the poet Krilov by Dr. John
Pollen, ci.e.)

People there be who, if they hold you dear,

To them you are a genius ' Writer without peer,

Whereas another maD,

Sing sweetly all he can,

Not only fails to win their praise —

But e’en his beauty fear they to appraise.

Therefore, though possibly you may be vext,

In place of fable I’ll take this for text

In Temple, once, a Preacher —

Of Pluto's eloquence Pupil and Teacher —

Lectured his Parish flock on doing good

The words poured from his lips in honeyed flood.

And all he said was true and pure and free from guile ,

As ’twere by golden chain

Were raised all thoughts and feelings to the sky — the while
He painted Earth as folly full and vain —

And hushed in awe his sermon ended.

Each listened eagerly, and to the spheres
With softened and enraptured souls ascended,

Nor felt the flow of their fast-falling tears 1

As from the church their homeward way they wended,

One hearer to another said — "How splendid 1
Ah 1 what a gracious gift 1
What glow 1 what sweet uplift 1
And with what power he led his Flock from wrong 1”

"But you, my friend, your nature’s hard and strong,

I did not see a tear-drop in your eye 1
Did you not understand ?” " Of course I did 1 but why
Should I begin to cry ?

I to this Parish don’t belong

”3

JAPANESE COLONIZATION*

By Dr. Inazo NitobS

The nineteenth century is pre-eminently an age of nation-
ality and of national expansion. All nations, large and
small, were awakened to a strong sense of their own
importance, so much so that not a few of them were
obsessed with it. Those that wisely adapted their national
self-consciousness to the law of organic growth became
conquering or colonial Powers, while those who, like the
Foolish Virgins of the parable, were not ready to act at
this call of the century were bereft of their independence.
The merciless law of the survival of the fittest, first
announced in the middle of the century, has only justified
the expansion of virile nations. So much for the universal
tendency of the age just passed.

If we examine the more immediate leasons for national
expansion, we shall find them to be largely of economic
character, such as the growth of the investment of capital,
the growth and migration o r population, the necessity of
command over the supply of raw materials, the desire to
acquire markets for home products. None of these reasons
is absent in the colonial enterprise of present Japan,
whether it be in tropical Formosa, or temperate Korea, or
half-frigid Saghahen. But in its earliest form of modern
Japanese colonization the chief motive was national safety
— the safeguarding of territorial boundaries, the security
from foreign invasion ; and this reason has been present
even \n its \ater stages. 'Let tue expVavn.

Modern Japan began her career late in the sixties of the

* A paper read before the Japan Society, on Wednesday, December 17,
1919. Published by permission.

VOL, XVL H

U4

Japanese Colonization

last century. That was the period which Mr. Kidd has, in
his recent book, called the age of Great Pagan Retrogres-
sion. It was the period when force was freely displayed
and conquests unscrupulously made in the backward places
of the globe. For some three centuries Japan had shut
herself up in a shell ; but when she first opened the lid and
gazed upon the world, what was the sight she beheld ?
The Union Jack was firmly planted in India and was
moving eastward to Singapore, Hong-Kong, and there
was some probability of it marching on to China. Why
not to Japan too? The French Tricolour was also to be
seen floating over Cambodia, Annam, and Tonkin, and
nobody could tell how far north or east it would fly. More
alarming than these, the Muscovite Power, like a huge
avalanche, was steadily descending southwards from its
Siberian steppes, crushing everything on its way. The
necessity of protecting our northern frontiers was most
evident and urgent. So began, in the seventies, the
colonization of the long-neglected island of Hokkaido
(Yezo). Saghalien, a bone of contention between Russia
and Japan, was exchanged for a group of some thirty-one
Kurile Islands (6,ooo square miles). The colonization of
Hokkaido was not fraught with great difficulties, as the
natives — the Ainu — were a timid and fast- vanishing race.
There was at first a reluctance on the part of the Japanese,
who, being essentially a southern race, but for generations
bred in the genial clime, were averse to move north.
Colonial enterprise had therefore to be largely led by the
Government. An immense amount of money was spent
before the work was voluntarily taken up by the people.
The island — 30,500 square miles, just about the size of
Scotland — can nowadays scarcely be called a colony,
being more a part of Japan than Algeria is of France. At
present the chief motive of immigration from the south is

rvot for the defence of frontiers ; it is economic. Its

agriculture, fisheries, and coal mines are very profitable. Its

beans are of much belter quality than those of Manchuria.

Japanese Colonization 1 1 5

Earley for brewing can be grown only there Its herring,
cod, and salmon are exported in vast quantities It is rich
in timber, oak and walnut The population has now risen
to over 10 millions, and it will prove an important granary
to the rest of the Empire

This sole colonial training in this northern island, though
it proved of great use when Russia returned in 1905 the
southern half of Saghalien, an area of some 13 000 square
miles and a population of 70,000, and valuable for its
fishery, coal oil, and timber, was inadequate to cope with
the conditions of a tropical colony of Formosa, inhabited
by 3^ millions of the Chinese race and some ferocious
head hunting tribes We acquired Formosa in 1895 after
the war with China largely because we could not get
anything else To this rich island of 14000 square miles
twice as large as Wales, there was attached at first no
great economic value, neither was if considered indispens-
able for the dt fence of our realm But its stntegic
importance proved latei very great during the war with
Russia China was apparently exceedingly willing to get
rid of it because of the chronic obstacles, is Li Hung-
Chang said, in administering it on account of (1) brigandage
{2) epidemics, (3) aboriginal savages Sure enough the
island was for a while a white elephant to Japan and its
sale was even discussed at one time Later on, under the
able administration of Kodama and G >to, brigandage was
put down, plague and malaria almost suppressed, and
Mala) head hunters kept within bounds by hundreds of
miles of electrified wire fence The last device, let me
explain, is not to kill the savages Setting aside humani-
tarian reasons it does not pay to do so The interior of
the island, so rich in camphor must have labour, and this
is reason enough to do everything to entice the aborigines
to peaceful activity When they are cut off by the fence
they begin to suffer from want of salt It is then that we
offer salt in exchange for their weapons, and on their
surrendering those we give them buffaloes and agricultural

1 1 6 Japanese Colonization

implements and the fence ts moved, as it were, over their
heads so that their village comes within Japanese protec
tion Every year an advance of ten or twenty miles is
thus made They are confined among mountains, while
on the plains and along the shores the Chinese population
ply their trade and industry After the suppression
of brigandage, the Japanese Government turned its
attention to the development of island resources The
tropical climate which was at first a terror to our
people was soon turned to good account Irrigation and
agriculture are encouraged sugar production has increased
nearly tenfold cadastral surveys have increased the
amount of Government revenue rice culture has improved
and the Oolong tea production has increased Railways
and harbours have been constructed, and the introduction
of sewage systems in the larger cities the gradual abolition
of opium smoking under strict regulation, the Government
monopoly of the camphor industry, have been some of the
more prominent features of the Formosan administration
The number of Japanese is steadily increasing but they
cannot compete with the Chinese m labour or in small
retail business Formosa is still an imestment colon)
but with the opening up of the higher altitudes in the
interior which is sure to follow the subjugation of the head
hunters and with the general sanitary improvement, I
believe our people can settle without detriment to health
Already the island thanks to camphor and sugar is self-
supporting Indeed the Home Government derives no
small revenue from the heavy consumption tax on sugar
and from Customs duties on her trade with China

In its rather short history Formosa has been under
Portuguese, Spanish Dutch, French, and Chinese rule
With such changes of masters there is little patriotism
among the people who nevertheless are intelligent, hard-
working, and law-abiding We do not hear of self deter-
mination there It is quite otherwise with Korea

This country prides itself on being one of the oldest

Japanese Colonization 1 1 7

nations of the earth. Oriental pride in mere age is shared
by our people too but I am afraid that in the Occident
old age is identified with senility, decrepitude, and dotage
However that may be, Korea was once a powerful and
advanced nation, from whom Japan learned most of her
ancient arts and craft

The Korean Peninsula jutting out into the Japan Sea
was like a phial, from which was poured milk and honey
into the mouth of Japan But as to Korea s political
independence in the past, there are grave doubts how
much she had ever enjoyed it For centuries she was
virtually under the suzerainty of China, paying tribute to
Peking and receiving Chinese envoys as messengers from
her over-lord After a war in the sixteenth century we
claimed Korea as our prot^g^ And later in the nineteenth
century Russia was bent upon absorbing the kingdom, and
was on the fairway to success As long as Korea remains
a really independent country, strong and well governed, it
may well be a buffer State , but when it is now under
China, and now under Russia there can be no security for
peace in the Far East nor safety for Japan We can
easily change the geographical metaphor, and liken the
Peninsula to a sword-blade aimed at the heart of Japan
Suppose Belgium were a weak and vacillating country, to
fall at any moment under the sway of Germany, what
guarantee is there for the peace of Europe and the
security of Great Britain ? I wish Korea had been as
strong and well ordered as Belgium, for in that case there
would have been no need of three Powers (China Russia,
and Japan) preying upon her, nor any necessity on the
part of Japan to annex her Here again it was as a
condition of self-preservation that Korea was taken under
our rule

I am not a believer m the Will to Power or in the doctrine
of the Divine Right of Might, but I do not believe it is the
right of every people to do as they will, regardless of
consequences to their neighbours A nation that cannot

iiS Japanese Colonization

keep order has as little right to absolute independence as a
nation that has only power has to conquer another. As a
matter of fact the old Korean kingdom had forfeited its
right to independence when it was treated as a shuttlecock
between China, Russia, and Japan Lord Curzon wrote
some years ago

“ The spectacle of a country boasting a separate, if
not an independent, national existence for centuries,
and yet devoid of all external symptoms of strength ,
inhabited by a people of physical vigour but moral
inertness well endowed with resources yet crippled
for want of funds — such a spectacle is one to which I
know no counterpart, even in Asia, the continent of
contrasts ”

As another English statesman has said, what India and
Egypt want is a self-government, and not a good govern-
ment , and though I believe that self government is a sure
means to good government, there is a proper time to begin
it, and this depends upon the political maturity of the
people who ask for it As long as they resort to assassina
tion, to terrorism, to appeals to third parties, to calumnies,
childish methods of playing at governments on foreign soil
— well, English people have had enough experience with
this kind of demonstration * I count myself among the
best and truest friends of Koreans I like them I do
not share such unfavourable views as were expressed by
Captain Bostwick, Archibald Little, George Kennan, or
Professor Ladd, and other writers on Korean character I
think they are a capable people, who can be trained to a
large measure of self government, for which the present is
a period of tutelage Let them study what we are doing
in Korea, and this I say, not to justify the many mistakes
committed by our militaristic administration, nor to boast
of some of our achievements. In all humility, but with a
firm conviction that Japan is a steward on whom devolves
the gigantic task of the uplifting of the Far East, I cannot
think that young Korea is yet capable of governing itself
Let them study, I repeat, what we are doing.

Japanese Colonization

119

Mr Wickham called the Korean “ the pale ghost of what
a Chinaman was a thousand years ago,” and Mr Kennan
called him “the rotten product of a decayed Onental
civilization ” Indolence was the badge of honour. The
first lesson to instil into him is to work

Before annexation was formally proclaimed, an August,
1910, Korea had been a protectorate for four years
(1906 10) under the Residency of our foremost statesman.
Prince I to It was in the early years of this regime that
I called on him in Seoul My mission was to induce him
to accept a plan of settling Japanese farmers in Korean
villages as demonstrators of better systems of cultnatioi
The old Prince refused to endorse my plan, insisting that
Korea was for Koreans But when I asked him how he
could supply the decreasing population — of which there
were several local indications in different parts — he still
insisted in his opinion by saying Under better govern-
ment, which I inaugurate, population itself will increase”
By better government he meant more than the elementary
functions of government — viz legal security of life and
property

Certainly, a government to be better than a self-govern-
ment must provide a substantial economic basis A glance
at the table showing the amount of agricultural produce
grown in 1910 and 1915 needs no comment

1910 1913

Bushels Bushels

Rice 4c 000,000 60 000 000

Wheat and barley 17,500,000 33,000,000

Beans 12000,000 17,500,000

Cotton 11,000,000 lbs 45,000,000 lbs

Mining, fishery, and manufacture have advanced in the
corresponding scale The bald mountains have been
covered with young trees Trade has increased by leaps
and bounds, foreign trade increasing ftom 60,000,000 to
108,000,000 yen. Railway mileage has nearly doubled.
The peninsular Government can support itself without
subsidies from the central exchequer. Schools, hospitals.

1 20

Japanese Colonization

and savings banks are being built in all the larger towns
and villages. The school attendance has more than
doubled in 1910- 15. And let me state here, with all
emphasis, that there is perfect religious liberty. A strange
rumour is now and then started by misguided missionaries,
or by malicious Koreans, that there is a Christian perse-
cution by the heathen Government of Japan. May I add
that the Chief Judge in Korea — a Japanese — is one of the
most earnest Christians ; a Director of a Department is
another, and the late Director of Education still another —
not to cite other instances I am not personally acquainted
with. Last summer we read in papers that a church was
bombarded by Japanese gendarmes. That sounds bad
enough. As far as I understand, this was done, not
because it was a church, nor because good Christian people
gathered there for worship — but because a dozen instigators
of insurrection hid themselves under its roof. When a
building is used, not for a religious purpose but for harbour-
ing law-breakers, it forfeits its sanctity. On questions like
these it is exceedingly difficult to be absolutely impartial
and fair. Distortion of facts by interested and hostile
parties is only human and too frequent. I can well
imagine, however, that Japanese authorities — or more
probably the lower officials, civil and military — may
exercise their functions awkwardly, to say the least, and
sometimes too zealously. When a colonial administration
as experienced as the British commits errors in Egypt or
in Jamaica, it is not to be wondered at that novices like us
are not free of them.

What is vital in any colonial scheme seems to me to be
the right answer to this question : Do we govern an
unwilling people for their sake or for our own ?

As to the general unwillingness of any colony — not
excluding India, Egypt, the Philippines, Indo-China, etc. —
to be governed by a Power alien to it, there is little doubt.
A colonial government has received no consent of the
governed. Nor is there much reason to believe that a

Japanese Colonization \ 2 1

colonial Power, white or brown, bears the burden at a
sacrifice simply to better the lot of the people placed m
its charge The history of colonization is the history of
national egotism. But even egotism can attain its end by
following the simple law of human intercourse — “ give and
take ” Mutual advantage must be the rule for the old
doctrine of 4 colonial pact " holds no more Korea must
not be regarded as a mere boundary line nor as a field for
exploitation, much less its inhabitants as food for powder
or as a labour supply Certainly, two races so closely
allied as the Korean and the Japanese must come to a
better understanding, and such a time will be accelerated
more by Japans approach than by Korea s To an
Fngltsh student of colonization it will be highly interesting
to watch the development of Korea to a Wales or — to an
Ireland

] 22

DRAMATIC NOTES

“ Sakuntula " — Winter Gardens Theatre

It was a good inspiration which caused the East and West Association
to introduce the play “Sakuntula,” on November 21, to a crowded
audience at the Winter Garden Theatre, Drury Lane

Miss Sybil Ihorndyke as Sakuntula acted throughout with effective
grace and distinct yet melodious enunciation Charming indeed was the
first scene in which she and her two young companions were tending and
watering “ their sester flowers '

Excellent, too, was the acting of the jester, who, like in our Shakespeare
plays, served to relieve the tension between the various highly dramatic
situations

Now, the king had gone on a hunting expedition to escape the cares of
State The hermits who meet the king urge him to sta>, as his sacred
presence will protect them from devils with whom they are afflicted, and the
mother sends to entreat him to accept

The next scene opens with Sakuntula lovesick and confessing her
admiration for the king Meantime the mother comes forward and tells
her daughter that the king is called to drive out the demons — and so they
converse together, he enraptured with her beauty, and secretly giving her
a ring Thus marriage is consummated, and he returns to his duties of
State Meanwhile a voice from heaven has announced her marriage to
the old hermit He then delivers an eloquent Bpeech, insisting that
“ You must go to your husband and all will be well, if only thou to thine
own self be true. 1 '

Accompanied by hermits, they arrive at the Court to find the king in a
very unhappy mood, declaring with scorn that he has no recollection of
the marriage or of the ring, which he challenges her to produce Then
Sakuntula discovers they have unfortunately lost it, and the hermits retire,
leaving them alone — a scene m which Miss Thorndyke’a acting is very
dramatic Then the Chancellor, standing behind the king, reminds him of
A prophecy made by the astrologers, that his son shall be a mighty man
who will acquire an Empire, and counsels Sakuntula to remain in the
Chancellor's house till the birth of her child, when the hereditary birth-
marks will be found As she passes through the door a loud clap of

Dramatic Notes

12 3

thunder is heard, and a bright light discloses that her celestial mother
has taken her to the skies No sooner is this accomplished than the
curtain drops

Two guards are then seen kicking an unlucky fisherman on the ground,
who is bound, and vehemently declares that the royal ring had not been
stolen, but found in the mouth of a large fish An official comes forward
and then says the case must go to the king As the king handles the
ring his memory of Sakuntula returns The fisherman is handsomely
rewarded, but the king is utterly disconsolate

Then Mantala, the charioteer of heaven, appears and commands him to
return to the hermitage There he sees a fine manly boy eagerly pursuing
a lion cub The king watches him with mingled envy and admiration,
but the boy calls loudly for his mother It is Sakantula who comes , she
sees the king, recognizes her boy’s father, and all the past is forgiven and
forgotten in the present joy of reunion with the child of both

The music and whole staging reflects much credit on Mr Das Gupta
The only item that seemed to our minds out of harmony with the Last was
the patch work curtain, which recalled Jacob’s coat of many colours

124

ARCHEOLOGICAL SECTION

THE EGYPTIAN ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET
B\ Warrln R Dawson

The vexed question of the origin of our alphabet has given
rise to a long series of controversies and theories, but of
recent years the matter appears to have been comfortably
settled among philologists A recent discovery' of great
importance has caused us, however, to reconsider our ideas
and to push back farther into the mists of antiquity

It is of course, a matter of common knowledge that our
English alphabet is taken directly from that of the ancient
Greeks who in their turn received it from the Phoenicians
It is indeed true that not later than i ooo years before the
Christian era a perfect alphabet of twenty two consonants,
but without vowels was used upon Phoenician soil, and it is
clear that Greece adopted most of the letters of this script,
although possibly in an earlier stage of development than
that in which we first encounter it Some of the Greek
letters, however, seem to have a closer affinity with those of
another Semitic alphabet, akin to Phoenician, but used in
slightly varying forms in South Arabia and Abyssinia, and
generally known as South Semitic the North Semitic being
Phoenician proper The mutual relations of the North
and South Semitic alphabets seem to postulate a common
parent which came into existence at least anterior to 1000
b c , and which may be called Original Semitic Opinions
differ considerably as to the origin of this hypothetical
script, and a cluster of divergent theories ascribe its origin
respectively to Babylonian cuneiform, Egyptian hieratic,
the lately discovered Cretan, and finally a number of marks
and other symbols found on Egyptian pottery, but certainly

The Egyptian Origin of the Alphabet 125

now Egyptian in origin All these derivations present
difficulties, and a different solution of the problem has
been presented by Dr Alan H Gardiner, who has studied
the subject exhaustively and whose researches have
already been made known to science* His views have
recently been propounded by Mr T E Beet, who has
collaborated in this study, in a lecture delivered to Egypt
Exploration Fund, and the substance of the lecture is
given in a condensed form in the sequel

Our data are the early forms of the letters, and their
names , which can be show r n with great probability to be as
old as the letters themselves The signs were originally
chosen on the acrophonic principle , thus, in order to
represent the sound B, a common object, whose name
began with B — namely, BET, “a house" — was chosen
The sign was hence called BET, which has survived in the
Greek BETA Can we see this process in its early stages ?

In the peninsula of Sinai, on a plateau cilled Scrabit-el
Kh&dim, anciently frequented by the Egyptians for the
purpose of turquoise-mining stood a temple dedicated to
the goddess Hathor, really called “the Lady of the
Turquoise” In this temple the expedition sent by th(
Egypt Exploration Fund in 1905 discovered various monu
ments bearing inscriptions in an unknown script, and near
the turquoise mines in the stme district were found seven
further inscriptions in the same writing Careful copies
were made of these documents, but it was not until 1914
that their true significance was realized, when Dr Alan H.
Gardiner submitted them to a long and minute study It
soon became manifest to Dr Gardiner that, though the
language was not Egyptian, many of the characters were
taken from Egyptian hieroglyphs, but this borrowing was
confined merely to the forms of the sign and not to their
Egyptian values As Semites are known from other
evidence to have accompanied the Egyptian expeditions
to Sinai, Dr. Gardiner argued that the new script might
* Joum of Egyptian Archeology , voL 111 , p 1 sqq

126 Ths Egyptian Origin of the Alphabet

well be Semitic, and he proceeded to fix the values of the
signs on the acrophonic principle already alluded to
These signs being only thirty-two in number could scarcely
be other than alphabetic Having thus determined the
values of fifteen signs, with their help a group of four signs
which recurs in several of the texts was found to read
BA‘ALAT — the Semitic word for Lady, or Goddess— the
evident equivalent of the Hathor of the purely Egyptian
inscriptions of this site Dr Gardiner and other scholars
have added new readings for other groups of signs, but
none of these are quite as convincing as the instance
just quoted

Here, then, in Sinai we have at a date probably earlier
than 1500 bc a Semitic people apparently in the very act
of borrowing signs from the Egyptian hieroglyphic script
in order to form on the acrophonic principle a true alphabet
which would suffice to write their own speech For B.
they borrowed the Egyptian sign for “ house ’ because
their own word BET began with the b-sound, and so on

From the very crude alphabet which these inscriptions
reveal, it is possible to trace many of the letters of the
PhcLnici in alphabet, and thus to show that they are con
ventionali 7 ed forms of objects selected originally from the
Egyptian hieroglyphs on the acrophonic principle If we
have not here the actual origin of the Phoenician —and
hence of our own — alphabet, we have at least a striking
example of the process to which both are due

It may be added that a complete corpus of all the known
inscriptions in the Smaitic script is in course of publication
by the Egypt Exploration Fund, under the joint editorship
of Dr Alan Gardiner and Mr. T E Peet, the first volume
of which has already appeared

The Royal Tombs of Thebes

127

THE ROYAL TOMBS OF THEBES

On December 12 last Professor P. E Newberry delivered
a most interesting lecture before a crowded audience at the
Royal Society s Rooms on the tombs of the Kings at Thebes.
This lecture is the second of a course organized by the
Egypt Exploration Society primarily for the benefit of
members, but to which the public are welcomed The
Royal Society have most generously placed their lecture-
room at the disposal of the committee, and the large
number of applications for tickets (which are given gratis)
has shown the keen interest taken in the subject by the
public

Professor Newberry is of all Egyptologists the best
qualified to lecture on the royal tombs, as his knowledge of
them is the result of twenty-five years' residence in their
vicinity, and he has the honour of being the discoverer, or
at least the co discoverer, of many of them

He opened his discourse with a brief historical sketch of
Thebes and traced its history from the earliest times as a
centre first of local government until it became the capital
of the country bcth in the temporal and religious senses
He next described the topography of the district and
indicated the rise and growth of the great mcropohs, more
especially that particular quarter which was appropriated by
the Pharaohs as the site of their tombs The Egyptian
tombs, it must be remembered are not merely vaults for
the deposit of the body, but are elaborate and systematized
structures of enormous extent and complex adornment, and
their every feature had a deep mythological significance

The time honoured custom of depositing valuable jewel-
lery and other precious objects on the mummies of the dead
has from the earliest antiquity made the tombs, and more
especially the royal tombs, objects of irresistible attraction
to treasure-seekers, and we learn from a number of papyn,
which time has so considerately handed down to us, that
active judicial measures were enforced to protect the
sepulchres of the Pharaohs from desecration The principal

128

The Royal Tombs of T lubes

of these documents, the Abbott Papyrus, relates that in the
twentieth dynasty a Royal Commission was appointed to
inspect the tombs of the Kings The personnel of this
commission is detailed at length, and a catalogue of the
tombs visited follows and a report on the condition of each.
The remainder of the document deals with the arrest and
trial of certain thieves Another papyrus, the “ Amherst,”
contains the confession of one of them, who apparently
turned “ Kings evidence." Details of some of the tombs
are given, the accuracy of which modern discoveries have
verified. Space forbids a description of the manner in which
the dues of the Abbott Papyrus have been followed up by
modern discoveries it is indeed a veritable romance. It
would seem that judicial measures did not avail to protect
the sleeping Pharaohs, and the final course adopted was to
remove the mummies from their tombs to a place of safety,
where they have remained undisturbed till our own times,
and the bodies of the greatest Kings of ancient history now
repose unmolested in the Cairo Museum

A wonderful series of objects recovered from the tombs
was displayed upon the screen, but space forbids the mention
of all save one — a piece of woven tapestry found by Professor
Newberry in the tomb of Tuthmosis IV This tapestry
mayjustly claim to be one of the marvels of the world, since
it is the earliest piece of woven tapestry known — by a full
thousand years — from any part of the world, and its texture
is so fine that it contains sixty threads to the inch as against
a maximum of twenty in the finest known examples of any
country or of any age ancient or modern.

The next lecture, which will be delivered in late January,
will be on “ El Amarna, the City of the Heretic King. 1 ’
The first lecture of the session — upon the alphabet— is fully
dealt with elsewhere in this journal.

Warren R. Dawson.

129

CORRESPONDENCE

“A FAIR HEARING AND NO FAVOUR ’

DO THEY WANT TO KNOW THF TRUTH?

Sir,

Is there anybody m England who cares to know the truth about
Russia? At first sight it would appear so Under the auspices of the
British Government there have been published a very important collection
of official reports by an official English Consul, setting out in very truthful,
honest terms what the facts really are about the horrors of Bolshevism
The Times has also published a pamphlet with the same object, and it is
sold at such a very cheap price that no Russian can think of that publica
tion without a feeling of gratitude Naturally the Russian National
Committee lost no time in distributing that pamphlet, with the principal
object of making known the important testimonies of Englishmen, as they
know only too well facts so terrible that they have ceased to be a revelation
to us, but can startle only English readers

It would be ungrateful on the part of a Russian not to mention also the
splendid leaders and articles of the Morning Post I am quoting now
just a few general facts which show that anybody who cares to know the
truth can easily be informed from the most authentic and accessible
sources How can you account now for the strange voices often heard in
England that, after all, things m Russia are not probably so bad as they
are printed ? What better testimonies cm be required or secured?

The evidence against Bolshevism is truly overwhelming 1 There is one
point, however, which is being lost sight of, and that point is a practical
one People ignore the material consequences which naturally will follow
that apparent indifference There are still, in spite of all the numerous
murders committed by the Bolshevists under the <egis of official atheism,
many Russians who are alive who not only hope for the recovery of
Russia, but are convinced of the day of her resurrection Before the war
there were 180,000,000 Russians, amongst whom there were so many
friends of England and the Allied cause If we assume— as we may
rightly assume — that the sacrifices of Russia in the war, followed by the
fiendish murders, accompanied by unspeakable tortures, of the Bolsheviks,
have led to a diminution of the entire population of Russia by 10 per
cent, there still remain 162,000,000 who will be either the friends or the
enemies of the English people in the future When, therefore, I mention
VOL. XVI. l

i30

Correspondence

the apparent indifference to the fate of Russia which is the fashion of the
day, I keep wondering. Where is the advantage of that attitude ? And
again I ask myself, Is there anybody who cares sufficiently for the truth
about Russia to understand that the time is ripe, not only for abstract
sympathy, but something more concrete and effective, as has been demon-
strated so effectively by Colonel Ward, M P , who, returning himself from
Russia, spoke en connatssanct de cause? Such an attitude has been shown,
for instance, by General Page Croft when he wrote that England could
at all events help the Russians by making available for her the large
stocks of medical stores, warm clothing, and ammunition of which
there remain after the war such an abundance As a woman,
passionately fond of children, I would appeal to English mothers to help
the poor little Russians who are dying now in thousands for want of food
and clothing English women, I feel sure will pardon my appealing for
their support, as I have already done in the Daily Mail on Friday,
October 31, in response to which I have received many precious letters

Olga NoviKOFr

WHERE EAST AND WEST MEET

A RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE DAY, AT HOME,
BEARING ON ASIATIC QUESTIONS

EAST INDIA ASSOCIATION

On January ig, in the Lincolnshire Rooms (Westminster Palace Hotel),
Miss h R Scatcherd will deliver her long promised paper on “ Friends of
India, Wise and Otherwise ’ (3 45 p m )

A Joint Session of the Royal Asiatic Society, I a Socidtd Asiatique, the
American Oriental Society, and I a Scuola Orientale, Reale University di
Roma, was held in London on September 3 to 6 In the regrettable
absence of Lord Reay, the President, and Sir Mortimer Durand, the
Director, the chair was taken by Sir Charles Lyall, who said

"The last time the Triennial International Congress of Orientalists
assembled was at Athens in 1912 A meeting was to have taken place
at Oxford in 1915, but the war made it impossible With the advent
of peace comes the epoch of reconstruction and this, for Oriental
studies in the West, is the inaugural meeting for the establishment of
fresh effort The proposal for this reunion came to us from M Senart
It was his view that the Triennial Congresses of Orientalists had become
rather occasions of entertainment and amusement than serious reunions
for the purpose of a review of progress achieved and plans for future
work, and that it was advisable that Orientalists should meet more
frequently for the purpose of keeping in touch with one another,
and considering the plans most likely to advance the cause of Oriental
research among the nations which the war has brought together in
a bond of the closest friendship and common aspiration These
representations were warmly received by the Royal Asiatic Society,
aud the present gathering is the result

“ Among the changes wrought by the war is the severance from the
Turkish Empire of most of its outlying provinces, which opens to
scientific and archaeological research vast tracts hitherto in a great
measure closed '

On September 6 there took place a reunion of the standing committees
for the purposes of drafting resolutions

The first resolution was moved by Professor A A, Macdonell

"That a sub-committee of the Oriental Societies taking part in this
Joint Session be appointed to consider the best means of realising the
scheme of establishing an Institute for International Research in India,
such Committee in due course to report the result of its deliberations
to the Standing Committees of the associated societies ’

Where East and West Meet

132

Mr F W Thomas moved, in the name of the Joint Standing Committees,
“ That a committee consisting of Professor Cabaton, Professor
Finot, Sir George Grierson, Mr Blagden, Mr F W Thomas, together
with one or more representatives of the International Phonetic
Association, should be appointed to continue the work of the
committee on Indo Chinese Transliteration ’

Professor Clay proposed that a Report of the Joint Session should be
published in the journals of the three Societies

Mr J W Thomas proposed a resolution drawn up by M Senart on
behalf of the Committees in the following terms

“ That a Committee consisting of Messrs Sylvain L£vi, F W
Thomas, and J H Woods (with possible extensions later), should be
formed with a view to studying and preparing the publication of a
general dictionary of Buddhism "

It was also proposed by him in the name of the Joint Standing Com
mittees that the Joint Session urges upon the Government of India the
extreme desirability of procuring, when circumstances permit, facilities for
the archaeological exploration of Balkh and the adjoining regions After a
speaker had suggested the substitution of the name “ Bamian " for
u Balkh, this resolution was also adopted

For the afternoon a visit to Kew Gardens had been arranged, and about
forty members proceeded thither in motor cars which had been procured
by the generosity and resource of Mr Robert Mond

The banquet to which the Royal Asiatic Society had invited the visitors
from America, Trance, and Italy, was also honoured by the attendance of
the Chinese Minister, Signor Balsamo, representing the Italian Embassy,
Sir David Pram, and Sir Hercules Read

In lecturing before the Royal Society of Arts on British Trade in China,
Mr H B Morse, 1 1 D , paid a tribute to the work of the China Consular
Service He said “ An idea is prevalent that men with business training
should be selected as commercial attaches That is an error The
commercial attache must be, first of all, a diplomatist , he must ferret out
the business secrets of the country he is working in, and the business
secrets of his rivals in that country, much as the military attache has
to ferret out military secrets A man who has qualified in the severe
test of the Civil Service examinations, has then undergone the varied and
broadening training of the China Consular Service, and has then been
selected by his superiors to be a commercial attach^, is more likely to
acquire the requisite knowledge of business methods and requirements
than a man with a solely business training is to acquire the other qualities
needed I he China Consular Service is a special service, requiring
special training owing to the difficult language and to the complicated
duties arising from the privilege of extra territoriality enjoyed by all
Europeans I have known several commercial attaches and formed
a respect for their work "

In the subsequent discussion the Chairman, Mr. Byron Brenan, said

In view of the immense opportunities which were now being presented
in China, why should not their great manufacturers, engineers, and

Where East and West Meet

133

financiers all join hands, sinking their rivalry and competition, and work
together towards one common object? It was not only that they would
make money while they were doing so, but they would be preparing
a wealthy and prosperous China, which would be a huge factor in future
international trade.

Sir Charles Addis wished to acknowledge publicly the great debt due, by
the whole of the commercial community dealing with China, to Mr. Morse
for the work he had done This work would endure, and he had paid a
compliment to all the Fellows of the Society in delivering his paper
that evening

Professor C A Middlelon-Smith said that, for the last seven years, he
had been in the University of Hong Kong attempting to train young
Chinese in applied science work, and every year he had been brought into
contact with those Chinese his admiration and respect for them had
increased ”

On November 19, a meeting of the Central Asian Society was held at
2 2, Albemarle Street, when Sir Maurice de Bunsen delivered an address
entitled “ The Old and New Levant Company.” After recording the
history of the old company, which lasted from 1581 to 1825, having been
earned on under royal charter, and paying a tribute to the work done by
successive generations of the Whittalls and others, Sir Maurice pointed
out that when the new Levant Company was formed towards the end of
1918, the first thing it did was to establish the closest relations with
J Whittall and Co. Ltd , who possess some forty etgnt branches and
agencies throughout Turkey in Europe and Asia Minor. The new
company may be described as an offshoot of the British Trade Corpora-
tion. This powerful body was formed in the early period of the war, and
under the special auspices of Lord Fanngdon, in order that something
might be done to remove from British banking the reproach of withhold-
ing from British industry the support and encouragement more freely
accorded to German producers and manufacturers by the banks of that
country

In Turkey and Asia Minor this new company works exclusively through
Messrs Whittalls , in Greece there is the Levant Company (Greece),
Ltd., which was represented at the Athens Exhibition. There is a branch
in Serbia, and also in Roumania. In South Russia its branches centre in
Odessa, Novorossisk, and Rostoff on the Don, m the Caucasus at Batoum,
in Mesopotamia at Bagdad, m Egypt at Alexandria, in Syria and Palestine
at Beyrout and Jaffa The Levant Company (Sudan), Ltd , has been
set up at Khartoum. Early extension is hoped for to Persia. 1 he head
office is, of course, in London.

A very successful Red Cross sale has been held in Belgrave Square, and
was opened by Princess Christian on December 2 Among the stall-
holders were Countess Carlov, Lady Wernher, Countess Medina. Among
the objects for sale was a beautiful piece of jewellery given by Madame
Novikoff, which has been referred to in The Times. Among those who
made purchases were the King of Portugal and the Queen of Spam

134

LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

OUR REVIEW OF BOOKS

INDIA

Local Government in Ancient India By Radhakumud Mookerji,
m a , ph d (Oxford Clarendon Press) 1919 12s 6d net

Dr Mookerji has written a most learned and thorough study of the local
bodies of ancient India It is interesting to find that the South supplies
much more evidence than the North , and it looks as if the balance
of past historical investigations, on the political and military side, to which
Mr Vincent Smith has drawn attention, may now be redressed, on the
constitutional side, by a closer investigation of ongines in the South. The
existence of a system of social self government, that of Hindu India, through
out “ the Muhammadan period,’ is abundantly proved indeed, the author
considers this survival so strong and so fully operative as to render the often
used phrase a misnomer There was not a Muhammadan period, he would
say, because Indian activity was still Hindu Lord Crewe m a valuable
" Foreword ” calls attention to the special significance of the book to day

W H H

The Sepoy By Edmund Candler (London John Murray ) 1919

7s 6d. net

Very happily very special attention has of recent years been paid m
England to the history of our Indian troops Not only has Mr Fortescue
reached the campaigns of Lake and Wellesley, and most admirably
described them, but there have been picturesque books like Major Mac
Munn s exciting short history of the Armies of India, with Major
Lovett’s fascinating illustrations, a book which Lord Roberts justly
praised for its* 1 masterly review," and authoritative records such as Colonel
Merewether’s history of the Indian Corps in France, “ one of the most
radiant chapters,” Lord Curzon has called it, “ in the glorious history of the
Indian Army” The heroic deeds of Indian troops in Mesopotamia
remain to be told in detail But meanwhile Mr Edmund Candler, most
sympathetic and brilliant of correspondents travelling with Oriental
troops, presents us with this charming sketch of the characteristics of the
different regiments It is really a first-rate little book, full of zest and
spirit from beginning to end, and full, too, of the knowledge which comes
from intimacy and understanding In a series of sketches Mr. Candler

Reviews and Notices

135

describes the Indian soldier as he is found to-day — the Gurkha, the Sikh,
the Punjabi Mussalraan, the Pathan, the Dogra, the Mahratta, the Jat, the
Rajput, and many less well known but not inferior races and types. The
pictures are most vivid, and the predominant characteristic of each section
is illustrated with stones humorous, pathetic, or bloodcurdling There is
no other way to describe the book, and it would be unfair to quote its best
stories It is unquestionably a book to be read, a book to make English
people love their Indian fellow-subjects.

W H. H

Speeches and Writings of Lord Sinha (Madras G A. Na/esan
and Co )

As has been well said by His Highness the Maharajah of Bikamr, Lord
Sinha holds the wonderful record of being the first Indian appointed
Advocate-General in Bengal, the first Indian to serve on the Executive
Council of the Governor General, the first Indian to be made a King's
Counsel and a Privy Councillor and a member of His Majesty's Govern-
ment, and, finally, the first Indian to be raised to the Peerage of the
Realm. And his country is justly proud of him, not only for this, but
because his views on public questions have always been those of a
patriotic, sober, just minded, ardent, yet sweetly-reason ible, Indian. The
esteem and respect in which he was held by his fellow countrymen was
illustrated when he was elected President of the Indian National Congress
held in Bombay m 1915, and in his opening address at that Congress he
did not hesitate to profess his abiding confidence in the British character,
and declared that the East and the West had not met in vain, and that no
other nation had fought so continuously and strenuously for the freedom
of other nations as the English The picture of the future of India that
most appealed to him was one in which Britons and Indians would be
fellow citizens ol a common Empire, sharing a common and splendid
heritage, all of them bnnging their special talents to work co-operatively
for the common good of the whole. He, therefore, appealed to all
sections of his own people to express in unmistakable language their
abhorrence of the dastardly crimes which besmirched the fair fame of their
country, and he implored them so to co-operate with the authorities as to
render the detection and punishment of such crimes absolutely certain

At the same time he appealed to the British nation to pronounce their
ungrudging approval of the goal to which the peoples of India aspired, and
to declare their inflexible resolution to equip India for her journey to that
goal, and to furnish her with due escort on the long, weary road

He pointed out that the war had afforded a splendid opportunity,
demonstrating the courage, loyalty, devotion, and tenacity of Indian
troops, and affording a striking proof of the wisdom of those who had
shown confidence in India, and trusted the fitness of Indians to grasp the
dignity and the real possibilities of citizenship. In short, in all his utter-
ances, Lord Sinha has always displayed a profound patriotism for his
mother-country, with the utmost loyalty to the British Crown, and a

Reviews and Notices

136

grateful appreciation of all that India’s connection with Great Britain has
meant foT his native land

He has fully realized that Britain and India, “ united,” will stand, and
“divided” will fall India needs Britain and Britain needs India, and
law, order, and good government have always been as dear to Lord Sinha
as the continued political advancement of his fellow-countrymen, and, as
an Indian gentleman, his own brilliant and honourable record and un
tarnished reputation have always been devoted to the public good

He recognizes that the regeneration and reconstruction of India can
only take place under the guidance and control of T n gland, and deprecates
the impatience of those who imagine that they have only to stretch forth
their hands to grasp the pri?c of local self government and self
determination

He pleads for a spirit of mutual trust, toleration, and forbearance, while
he claims equal citizenship for Indians and insists on the loyalty of the
educated classes of India to their king Emperor and the Empire

The training for freedom of one-fifth of the entire world’s population —
this is the exhilarating task that now confronts British statesmanship —
and it involves the gradual transfer of responsibility to the people of
India from the Civil Service of India, although that Service has con-
spicuously accomplished the greatest task ever undertaken in the history
of the world by the men of one country for the people of another

No other iace, I ord Sinha (when Sir Satyendra) declared, could or
would have done the work of the English m India “ I admire them — nay,
I love them— for I believe that they are a people mentally and morally
clean, and if I am sometimes called upon to attack them or criticize them
when they seem to fall short of their ow-n standard, it is certainly not with
pleasure I do so I et England trust us and she will never regret it As
the Review has often said, ‘ trust begets trust, and what is wanted in
India just now is an extension of kindly feelings and of good manners on
both sides, and a cordial acceptance of the conciliatory attitude, and " the
fair field’ so consistently advocated by lord Sinha of Raipur

“FIVE PER CEN1 OF THt GROSS’

“Some Soui h Indian Viliages” Edited by Gilbert Slater, MA,
D Sc (Oxford Umurstt) Press) 12s 6d net
About fifty years ago I wrote an article entitled “Fifty per cent of the
net,’* which was supposed to be equivalent to the 30 per cent of the
gross to which the Slate as co sharer was always considered to be entitled,
just as the English landlord claimed about one third of the crop as rent.
In that article I criticized, (adversely I have no doubt), the procedure
of the Settlement Department in arriving at that figure Now we have a
Professor of Economics in Madras, after a most elaborate survey of villages
in eleven different districts by Indian students, working m or near their
own homes, telling us that the average madenee of the Land Reunue in
those villages now cannot be more than 5 per cent of the gross produce

Reviews and Notices

3 7

That is what many of us have been saying for many years , but the
people of this country prefer the evidence of the late Mr Keir
Hardie and Mr Smilhe No doubt, as the reviewer in The Times
Literary Supplement points out, these few surveys do not afford
sufficient data on which to generalize , but as far as they go they prove, as
Dr Slater says, that the Land Revenue is not an effective cause of poverty,
and that the popular outcry is the result o f the leniency rather than the
severity of the assessment, in other words, “In the existing economic
environment, a low incidence of revenue does not enrich the ‘people,’ but
merely breeds parasitic landlords , the income of the country is not increased,
but a share of it is diverted from the public, as represented by the
Government ”

As to the poverty of India, Dr Slater notes that the official estimate
of the average income (£2 a head, or £ 10 for an average family) was
“very probably an under estimate in 1898, and would have to be very
considerably raised now ’ His own estimate in 1916-17 for the Madras
Presidency was “ Rs 7 2, or nearly ^5 a head, ’ say, ^25 fora famil)
The truth is, he says, that “ India is a very rich countiy inhabited by very
poor people ’ ‘ English arable land will bear a crop of wheat once in jour

years , a paddy field in the south of India will bear one, two, or three
crops of rice every year’ , and I might add that the best of such land was
selling, when I was last in linnevelly, for Rs 3,000 an acre, at which
rate I was assured it brought a return of 6 or 7 per cent Why, then, are
the people of India poor ? 'Well, it is certainly not because of the
Government assessment even in Madras, where it is higher than in any
Province of India, or in the Tambraparni Valley where it is higher than
anywhere else in Madras Di Slater says it is partly owing to the
“inefficiency of labour, the lowness of wages, submissiveness, and exces
sive abstinence, and certainly, we may add, the Hindu law of inheritance
with its excessive subdivision of the land

l)r Slater is only beginning his economic studies but this first volume
should be read by everyone who takes an intelligent interest in the
condition of India, especially by our friend Mr Hyndman, and his many
misguided followers, Mrs Besant and her motley crew Dr Slater’s
criticism of one of his own contributors, Mr N Sundaram Aiyar, on
page 233, would be amusing if it was not so sad as a specimen of the
sort of argument constantly used by the people who ought to know better
It may be worth while to reproduce Dr Slater s words

“Mr Sundaram Aiyar says 1 The burden oj taxation must be
lightened , the villagers are starving themselves to pay the taxes ’
But when he comes to details of a particular holding, we find that
his typical ‘ kanomdar,’ who is a nrddle man supervising and financing
the working tenants, draws from them an income of from 4,600 to
5,000 paras of paddy, out of which he has to pay in land revenue
only 400 paras, or one-twelfth With the help of the other informa
tion he gives we can conclude that the land revenue in this village
drawn from paddy lands is about 4^ per cent of the gross produce "

138 Reviews and Notices

I cannot improve on the conclusion of the Review of this book in
lndta } that “ the illustrations are excellent, and a good glossary of terms
and an Index (which might have been better’) conclude this valuable
work ’

GtxiLOGv of India for Students By D N Wadia, m a , b sc Pp xx +
398, 8vo , with 20 plates and 37 other illustrations (. Macmillan and
Co) 18s net

This volume is an admirable textbook, well adapted to its purpose, and
written by a teacher whose experience is quite evident in its pages It
is not intended to replace the comprehensive but now somewhat out of date,
work of Blandford, Meddlicott, and Oldham, which the mention of Indian
geology calls up to the mind of those of our generation, but it embodies in
compact form the gist of its teaching and of the progress made during the
last twenty five years by the India Geological Survey

\fter a brief description of the physical features of the country, the author
plunges into its stratigraphical description, forming the bulk of the book ,
then he deals with physiography in a rather short chapter, followed by
economic geology, and a compact monograph of the geology of Kashmir
His treatment of the subject is broad and comprehensive , one would
almost think that he was reached by the circular from the French Govern
ment to teachers of geology, requesting them to abstain from loading the
student's memory with lengthy lists of fossil species — indeed, Mr Wadia
confines himself to naming genera He illustrates his chapters with sections,
and with key mapsatthe end of the volume but we cannot help thinking
that he might with advantage have added some sketch maps of the whole
of India showing the relations between the various systems, much as
Lipparent, Boule, and others, have done in their textbooks of geology used
by I rench students Geology, speaking from some experience in teaching
it, requires a mass of illustrations photographs, and maps, and it is a wise
policy to give them in textbooks, an admirable example being Tarr s
College Physiography, which Mr Wadia might add to his bibliography

While commending the book as a whole, we may perhaps be permitted to
mention a few shortcomings we found but two misprints — read ewstatue
(p 57J and Spodwmtne (p 324) instead of the present mistakes — but a few
errors or misstatements of fact We cannot let pass without a protest
the words terra cotta as the name of a raw clay, nor can we agree with the
author s definition ofpeat , he should read Lapparent on “ tourbe," and the
excellent reports published by the Canadian Geological Survey, and amend
that short paragraph (p 296) Nor, do we believe, is amber used m
medicine, generally speaking, but in native medicine only There appears
also to be some mistake about the manufacture of tungsten wire , chromite
is used chiefly in the manufacture of bichromates, and incidently becomes
of interest in that way to Indian tanners It is tantalizing to read that
salajit is a solid hydrocarbon, without its true nature being stated It is
ignored by Dana, and likewise by Watts, to whose work the reader not
familiar with Indian bazaars is likely to turn for information

Reviews and Notices

139

The sketch of the theories of the origin of petroleum might have been
extended to include the more recent American theories involving the
consideration of diatoms, and reference made to the Canadian publication
thereon , further, Mr Wadia does not mention the important bearing of
salt (including the bromides and iodides) upon Ochsenius’s theory

Here and there the style is somewhat involved — eg , “ under such a state
of circumstance ” (p 279) might well be corrected to a simpler sentence
These, however, are minor points which do not diminish the value of the
book to students, presumably already acquainted with geology in a general
way, and who will find.m its pages the information necessary for their exami
nations, together with constant incitement to seek in other more specialized
publications the smaller details which only the specialist requires
Particularly welcome is the repeated injunction to the student to keep
geological maps before him during his study T lie book must have
involved immense research, and it betokens true love of his subject by its
author

H I j

Colrtesy in thl Brahman Ot igarchy * By Annie Besant

Courtesy is one of the commonplaces of controversy, and I shall not
therefore emulate Mrs Besant in her use of such adjectives as
“impudent and “absurd in fact, there is little to cavil at in her ex
position of the meaning and connotation of caste, for it is quite true and
within the knowledge of many that a Brahman may be a clerk or a judge,
a prince or a constable It is also true that the “ oppression ’ of out
castes, whatever meaning we may attach to the word, is not the monopoly
of Brahmans But the insistence on the value of wealth to be found m
paragraphs 2 and 4 of the leaflet savours suspiciously of the platform,
for no one knows better than Mrs Besant that mere wealth counts for
little against the educational superiority, the greater energy, and the im
memorial prestige of the Brahman The attack on Luropeans in the
latter part of the pamphlet is very misleading It is difficult to assume
that Mrs Besant does not know that in her own province of Madras there
was quite recently an inquiry into the working of the fc orest Laws by a
committee of five, of which two were Indians , possibly she may not know
that the eternal question of pasture lands, with their ludicrously inadequate
supply of grass, which involves the further problems of promiscuous
breeding, cattle disease, and over preservation of inferior stock, is con
stantly before the Government in general and the Agricultural Department
in particular Possibly she may not know that m her own province of
Madras there is not a district which has less than 2,000 guns, that r pecial
rewards are offered for man eating tiger&, and that the man eating tiger is
the most elusive of animals, so that even if the Sahib arrives with his rifle
it is ten chances to one that he never sees the tiger Tf the other accusa
tions — over taxation, the cutting off of the old customary privileges, the

Home Rule for India League (British Auxiliary), Leaflet No 14

Remews and Notices

140

rising death rate and the rest— have to be passed over id silence, it is not
the silence of consent but rather the silence which awaits something in the
nature of proof of their assertions

Finally, the planters are convicted out of their own mouth of the desire
to enslave the worker Of course it is very wicked of the tea-planter to be
so much interested in the tea industry just as it is very wicked of British
Labour to become his accomplice by consuming the tea But somehow a
wicked world is inclined to look to its own interests and to satisfy its own
wants Is there really anything very dreadful in an appeal to planters to
“ look ahead and be prepared to meet the gradually changing conditions ”?
The vast majority of the Indian people is agricultural, working on its own
land or for its Indian masters , a fraction of the remainder is “ held in the
iron gnp of the foreign capitalist and exploiter ’ For the sake of that
fraction, in the words of Mrs Besant, “ may we not hope that British
Labour will help ’ by doing without its tea > May we not indulge m the
further hope that the “ iron grip’ of the great British firms, through whom
Indian traders reach foreign markets, may be relaxed, so that Indian trade
may work out its own salvation — sink probably or possibly swim ?

THE NEAR EAST

Pan Islam By G. Wyman Bury (London Macmillan ) Pp 1 1 2
1919 6s net

{Reviewed by Pkoiissor D S Marcowolih, htt d)

Mr Wyman Bury s new book contains an amount of valuable informa
lion quite out of proportion to Us size The matter is of a decidedly
miscellaneous character, and includes history, geography, anthropology,
theology, natural history, and homiletics What he has to say on all these
subjects is decidedly worth hearing, whence we have no cause for
complaint

Of all the “ side-shows' of the Great War perhaps the Aden campaign
attracted least attention Mr Bury’s account tallies exactly with what the
reviewer heard on the spot, and exhibits a fresh illustration of the well
known British talent for blundering through The public did not realize
how near Great Britain came to losing this valuable station on the
Arabian coast Mr Bury is able to give details of the campaign in these
regions which could have been obtained by no one who had not {like
himself) taken part in the transactions, armed with his unique knowledge
of the geography, the conditions, and the dialects of Arabia

His is the only work known to the present writer in which the political
situation m South Arabia is explained with reasonable clearness and
suggestions of any value are made for the future government of the
country

Mr Bury’s acquaintance with Islamic lands is by no means confined to
Arabia, but extends to all Mohammedan countries, of which he has
provided a useful map Much of what he says is reassuring , thus he is

Reviews and Notues

141

satisfied with the results of French preponderance in Morocco, and
according to him these in no way correspond with the gloomy forecast of
Mr Ashmead Bartlett’s Passing of the Skereefian Empire His history of
the Pan-Islamic movement and its failure in the hands of Germans and
Turks is highly expert and explains all the facts

His account of the Somalis and their country, and the enterprise of the
Mad Mullah, contains much which is unfamiliar, if not new, and again
illustrates the incompetence with which matters are managed in these out
of the way possessions and protectorates
A considerable portion of Mr Bury’s book deals with the missionary
problem His view is that to some regions no missions of any sort
should be sent , in the remaining countries of Islam missionary activity
should be confined to education and good works Though his tone is
that of an orthodox Anglican, he has great admiration for Islam, to some
extent (though not exclusively) as a teetotal religion The reviewer is
disposed to agree with most of what he says, but fancies he has overlooked,
or at least taken insufficient account of, one practical difficulty It is that
the subscribers to missions are warmly interested in proselytism, mildly so
in philanthropy, and scarcely at all in education The savagery prevalent
in Mohammedan statts — eg, handcuttmg for theft, still practised in
Koweit — can be abolished on'y by strong government, which while tolerating
Islamic worship, abnegates the Islamic codes Consciously or unconsciously
the proselytising missions prepare the way for the introduction of such
civilized control

History ob Zionism, 1600-1918 By Nahum Sokolow Vol n ,
pp 1x111,480 (Fondon Longmans, Green and Co 1919) 21s net
{Reviewed by Princii al W H Benneit, un d,dd)

The first volume of this work has already been noticed tn these columns
This volume starts from the close of the first Zionist Conference in 1897,
and deals with the history to the end of 1918 The character of this
portion of the work is the same as that of the previous volume , the interest
and importance are maintained at the same high level There is further
evidence of the division of opinion amongst the Jews "as to the ideals
of Zionism We gather, however, that the majority arc in favour of the
movement, and we should imagine that many who are not Zionists might
yet favour the establishment of an autonomous Jewish community in
Palestine on practical grounds The author deals with the difficulties
arising from the presence in Palestine of a large non Jewish population,
and from the interest of Christians and Mohammedans in their respective
holy places The leaders of the Zionist movement are fully alive to these
problems, and are prepared to handle them in a liberal and conciliatory
spirit. See especially LXXXVI of the Appendix, “Lord Gwydyr on
Zionism and the Arabs ” We do not notice, however, any reference to
one feature of the problem, the fact that at present the Jews are only a

142

Reviews and Notices

comparatively small minority of the population There is full information
as to the numerous emphatic declarations by representatives of the allied
Governments in favour of Zionism A less cheerful subject is the account
of the savage persecution of the Jews under the Russian autocracy in 1906
and in the early years of the war In 1906 “something like 1,400 pogroms
took place , the number of persons directly affected . reached a
total of some 200,000 to 250,000 . , the casualty list was estimated at

approximately 20,000 murdered and 100,000 injured.” According to our
author, the Russian Government took advantage of the military necessity
of evacuating certain districts to inflict barbarous treatment on the Jews,
he speaks of “ the curious mixture of expulsion and evacuation, of pogroms
and slaughters, of which they were the victims ” (p 34)

The greater part of this volume is occupied with reprints of documents
referred to in the text

Shfkei Hakodpsh (The Holy Shekel), by Joseph Kimchi, and Yesoi>
Havirah (Ihe Foundation of Religious 1 ear) Edited by Hermann
Gollancz, m a , D lit Pp xx + 209 (Oxford University Press )
1919 2 is net

{Revirufcd by Principal W H Bfnnett, liit d , dd)

The Shekel Hakodesh is a metrical collection of maxims and proverbs,
written in Hebrew, by Joseph Kimchi of Narbonne, 1105 1170, father of
the celebrated David Kimchi It is based on earlier collections, Hebrew
and Arabic As far as the Shekel Hakodesh is concerned, this work is an
editto pnneeps the Hebrew text is printed for the first time, and Dr
Gollancz has added an English translation. Introduction, and Notes, the
latter are critic il The \esod Hayirah is similar to the Shekel , each
chapter opens with the words “ Fear God,” except that in some texts the
first chapter begins “ I ear the Lord ” Dr Gollancz is unable to offer
any solution of the problem of the authorship of Yesod, but regards it as
closely connected with the Shekel , he says nothing expressly as to its date,
but apparently assigns it to the same period as the Shekel The “ Proverbs
and Maxims ” are good examples of the shrewd, pawky, and yet devout
“ Wisdom ” of the Jews Fcr instance, from the Shekel, I 16 “A man
1 f wisdom will continue in the search for wisdom, seeking knowledge
wherever it may dwell or be kept There is no fool equal to him who
may think ihat he has finished and completed his studies ” I 29 “ Why

dost tbou find that it is the way of the world for the wise to be knocking
at the dt or of the rich ? Because the wise of heart, knowing the folly of
the rich, make allowance for their poverty in sense when compared with
their own " X 222 “Shouldst thou need a gift, ask rather of one who
once was rich and hath become poor, than ask of one who was once poor
and is a man of means. XXI 411 “ The world grows sick of the society

of those who never cease prating.” As one might expect from the
circumstances of the Jews in the Middle Ages, there is much in a minor
key, on the value of endurance, contentment and humility — for instance.

Remews and Notices

M3

from Yesod VII 77 “Is it not better to endure that which you have
neither strength nor the power to remove? What is better calculated to
remove the worries and sorrows of a man than the power of endurance
which comes to his aid ? Herein lies the panacea for all mourning and
grief, the healing of all the ills of the flesh." In XIV 156, on the
difficulty of safeguarding secrets, we have a curious application of
Habakkuk 11 1 1 “ Fix a suitable spot under the heavens , for why

wouldest thou destroy men of uprightness? Understand that the stones
cry out of the wall and the rafter speaks forth what is in the innermost
recesses Lower, therefore, thy voice when thou givest council at eventide,
and look about at thy surroundings when thou givest it at morning dawn.”

The book is beautifully got up, and is a valuable addition to the number
of accessible Rabbinic texts

FAR EAST

Romances of Old Japan By Madame [Y T | Yukio Ozaki Pp 278
Small 4to, with 32 plates by Japanese artists, 16 in colours (Simpktn
Marshall ) 30s net

Mrs Ozaki, the half-English, half Japanese, wife of the Japanese political
leader, who some years ago was Mayor of Tokyo and late Minister of
Justice, needs no introduction to readers of Japanese tales, under the
name Yei Theodora Ozaki she has already published three collections of
translations of fairy tales and stories of warriors told in easy, pleasing style
This new book contains eleven stories ranging from the Middle Ages to
within half a century of the present day, and most of which are famous in
Japan, as tales or as theatrical plays, some like “ Kesa Gozen ” and the
st iry of “ Matsuo ' finding their way into popular imagery and the
decoration of sword mounts Both these and the “ Quest of the Sword ”
are famous examples of Japanese loyalty, and of that stern sense of
duty which the education of the Samurai put in the first place Almost
all Japanese folktales contain at least one ghost, and Mrs Ozaki has
given us here some ghost stories, two fairy tales, one Buddhist story
The book is well got up, free from misprints, and, even to one who has
long known some of the originals, thoroughly readable , in fact, the present
writer never let it out of his hands until finished, at one long enjoyable
sitting It should be a most acceptable gift-book, but why was the colour
plate opposite p 212 printed out of register ? Is it a new way to suggest
motion? The printer could easily do better For instance, the plate
showing Endo Morito holding the head of Kesa Gozen and gasping with
unutterable horror is beautifully done H 1 J

Japanese Poetry the Uta. By Arthur Waley Pp no Small 4to
( Clarendon Press.) Price 6s 6d

This book gives one the impression of being a students’ note book used
in the study of Japanese poetry with or without native help, and now
offered to the public as a means of enlightenment written by a master

144

Reviews and Notices

The short Japanese poems are set with a parallel translation, the lines of
which are reshuffled to facilitate their apprehension by the reader, and
numbered so that he who wishes may put text and translation side by side
It is a curious device, calculated to trip the hurried and unweary, and
even some would-be panegyrist ... A rapid perusal shows that the
translations are fair, and the book should take its place with such as
Porter’s translations Mr Waley, in his usual way, is very dogmatic, and
does not spare harsh criticism to those who made the trail easier for men
of bis age , his cheap, half hidden sneer at Professor B H Chamberlain
is distinctly out of place in his n complete bibliography of Japanese
poetry. His criticism of I ange’s may some day be applied to his own
efforts Anyone might, for instance, call Mr Waley’s attention to his
translation on p 55 of Hitomaro’s classical ditty, and require chapter and
verse in justification of the footnote, because (1) it is far from obvious
that it is a poem of parting, and the treatment of the subject by Japanese
artists is against that contention , (2) the authorship may be uncertain and
the occasion also, but tradition has always ascribed the poem to Hitomaro ,
(3) the translation is no impio\einent on those already inexistence There
are a sketch of lapanese Grammar and a Vocabulary which make the book
more useful, but an Index should have been provided On p 93 Sug^wara
should be Sugawara no \l1ch17ane, and, by the way, there are amongst his
many poems several more popular than the one here given

H. L J

Thl Masjikyo* ihp h ar Lasi By Arthur Judson Brown Pp 669
8vo , with a map and illustrations ( G Bell and Sans ) 28s. net

(Renewed by H L Joly )

Ihe sub-title of this large book describes it as “ The Story of Korea’s
Transformation and Japan s Rise to Supremacy m the Orient,” but this is
only two thirds of the truth, as Fundi said once of A Smith’s initials , for
the book is divided into three parts Korea, Japan, and two hundred pages
on the Christian missions and the problem of the Tar East The author
is a careful, conscientious compiler, and he has boiled down into two
hundred pages each the history of Korea and that of Japan , as an
American he writes presumably for Americans primarily, and much of his
story would be unnecessary if the American public knew more of Japan
than the following quotation from the “Tar East” indicates

“ It is good to learn that Akimoto Shun has been deeply impressed
by American ignorance of Japan He says in the Advertiser ‘ As
far as my observation and experience tell, all that the average
American knows about Japan is that it is a small country far away,
which produces tea, silk, paper lanterns, and kimonos, and also great
numbers of small objectionable creatures, called immigrants, for the
explicit purpose of harassing American labourers And the know-
ledge, or rather the lack of knowledge, of the cultivated men of
America, who may be supposed to know better, does not seem to soar
much above this level ' "

Reviews and Notices 145

Mr Brown's book should enlighten his countrymen considerably He
has been so careful to present both sides of the question in the relations,
now so much discussed, between Japan and Korea, that he seems loth to
come right out with a definite conclusion , indeed, he works hard towards
one, but one which can be acceptable to the missionary mind only —
namely, that Japan would be a good master of the Far East were it but
Christian That is the kernel of Mr. Brown's seven hundred pages , it is
tantamount to say, “Come into the fold of Christianity as eipounded by
Americans, and all will be well ” One does not want to waste ink discuss
ing that plea , all that mixing up of religion and politics reminds one
of the negro king’s description of his kingdom’s subjugation “ Gin,
Bible, lobsters ” , the latter being too well known a military slang expres
sion to need explanation In the same way we see the “ Korea Review
printed in Philadelphia for the Korean Republic,” asking for the help
of the world to obtain independence for “ poor Christian Korea (italics
ours), and that sort of thing lets the cat out of the bag Where Mr
Brown deals with historical facts he js fairly careful to give, as we said,
both sides of the question , but when he gets on to missionary endeavours
and influence his quotations are one sided pro domo sua , his statements
biased even to the point of being contrary to fact, as when he says that
the missionary was the first to teach science and to explain the uses
of steam and electricity in the Far Last, when he exaggerates and distorts
the daily bowing before the portrait of the Japanese Emperor, and calls it
“ ceremonial worship ” All Mr Brovin’s pleas for missionary schools in
Korea to be on an equal footing with the Government schools m which no
religion is taught can be dealt with by comparison with the similar system
that some time prevailed m trance, and by remembering that all the
agitation in Korea at present is fomented by Korean converts And
Mr Brown, who presumably knows what he is talking about, gives them a
broad hint when he writes (p 372) “ The large way’ (of viewing the

Japanese Administration) “ is to note that m the evolution of the race and
the development of the plan of God, the time had come when n was for
the best interests of the world and for the welfare of the Koreans them
selves that Korea should come under the tutelage of Japan ” Agimus tibi
gratia We wish Mr. Brown’s book a large number of readers , if he

pnnts a second edition he might correct the do?en or so of misprints,
chiefly in proper names, in the Japanese section

RUSSIA

The Dark People By Ernest Poole {Macmillan and Co ) 1919

The Village. By Ernest Poole {Mannillan and Co) 1919

These excellently written books should be read together, as they gnc a
clever and sympathetic American visitor’s impressions of Russia during her
crisis from July, 1917, and of a visit later in the August of that year with
his interpreter to the latter’s native village m the heart of the country,
where he saw village life from the inside. Thus, though not actually at
VOL. XVI. K

146

Reviews and Notices

first hand, he had an opportunity of gaining some knowledge of Russia
and the Russians after the Revolution, and it is obvious that the affection
that Russia inspires in so many strangers gripped him strongly His
" Dark People " are the Russian peasants — for, as he points out, Russia is
still a peasant land— who have until now been inarticulate, and even now
are swayed by group after group of politicians He describes the rise and
fall of the eloquent Kerensky, and says that his fall meant that 160,000,000
people were left without government Nevertheless, he noticed the profound
truth that u the Slavs havt a deep instinct for getting along without any
law,” until the Bolsheviki seized upjn the power with their programme of
“ socialized industries Still, he points out, every Russian question leads
back to the villages, and ‘ until the peasant is satisfied, nothing is settled,
nothing is sure * The purification of the abuses in the Orthodox Church
is one of his hopes, so is the future of th< emancipated “ Old Believers,”
who have gained so much power in the past in spite of fearful oppression
at the hands of their brothers m league with autocracy It remains to be
seen however, how religious liberty will harmoni/e with the Bolshevik
regime — foi, as he says, 1 What is Russia really doing?’ His pictures of
the villagers, their lives, sometimes sordid, sometimes noble, show that he
and his friendly guide understood each other well, and help us to visualize
the village life He shows that m the country noble and peasant fannies
often hid a mitrimonial tit between them , that the old serf days are
by no means forgotten, and that there are many evil results still of the Old
Regime Chief among these are the insufficient means of communica
tion and, among a people eager for instruction, an entire lack of sufficient
enlightenment and education \ct he shows how lovable the villagers
ate, and he hopes for their future I et us lake his advice '‘To help
them, he says “ we must understand We must realize that Russia may
not settle down for years And we should not wait for that, we should
seiz>_ every possible chance to give aid —or the Germans, superior in
< ivilization to the Russians, will do it we should work as hard as they
We should grimly refuse to be disheartened or give up, no matter what
disappointments fall, for in the tlevation and direction of the u Dark
People of the villages lies our hope of the best solution of the Russian
question A b kancis Siluaki

I he Liquor Pioiiem in Russiv By William E Johnson. { Amertcan
Publishing Co )

1 he above is a very interesting and richly illustrated volume by the
now famous Mr Johnson It is the result of studies on Russian Social
Problems which were commenced by the author in 1913 He acknow
ledges that the greatest men 111 Russia have recognized the national
mistake of the vodka monopoly, of which one of the inspiring geniuses
was Count Witte It is pointed out that the monopoly was overthrown by
the exigencies of war and, it may be added, the statesmanship of the Tsar,
but its days long since, like the diys of Serfdom, seventy five years ago,
have been numbered

Reviews and Notices

147

He makes the following interesting observation about the liquor problem
in the Baltic Provinces

“It is because temperance activities in these provinces have been so
generally promoted by the revolutionary element that the Russian Govern
ment has always been suspicious of the Baltic anti alcohol reformers The
German brewers were more influential with the Russian governor than the
peasant and tenant class And there is some justification for this feeling
of suspicion in Russian circles Mr Jean Seskis, the]editor of Dsmitenes
Wehstnests , the largest daily paper in Riga, and which is published in the
Lettish language, told me in 1913 that the ‘temperance movement and
the revolutionary movement are one and the same thing ’ It represents a
revolt against the baronial brewer and the Russian Government vodka
monopoly ”

GENERAL

“Wake up, Encland’’ By Granville C Cunningham {!> S Atng
and Co) 1919 Pp 9 — 126

This book seems to have been written in 1917, though not issued till the
present year The author (most of whose life has been spent m C anada)
feels it to be his task “ to rouse the Btitish nation to the necessity of
forming a Government for the British Empire He is impressed by the
fact that “at present there is no Government of the Lmpire there are
numerous different Governments over different parts of the P mpire but
there is no one Centr'd Government where questions common to and
affecting the whole Fmpire can be discussed and adjudicated upon He
had already published in 1895, “ A Scheme for Imperial Federation,” and
he now returns to the subject in the new light thrown upon it by the
experience of the war In the first chapter, ‘ Food and Ra v Material,
the value of the Colonies to the Mother Country is powerfully and
energetically demonstrated We regard this demonstration as the best
part of the book It is very concise and clear, and is written upon a full
and accurate basis of facts The main thesis is that “ there is nothing
agricultural, mineral, or forestal, that is required or needed for tht use and
enjoyment of man, but can be found — and found in ample quantities ” —
within the confines of the British Empire ( ‘ except cork,’ adds the author
with a touch of humour), with the corollary, “Better for us tn the future
to get everything we can from our own possessions even if at first we have
to pay more for it, rather than build up a foreign Power that may in the
future become an enemy ” Phis view is carefully worked out in regard to
wheat, sugar, cotton, and metals, mentioning as respects the last named
the amazing fact that at the outbreak of wai the only place where wolfram
(tungsten) existed was Burma, and the whole supply was in German hands!
So with zinc, so with copper — nobody knew, nobody cared We wish that
every candidate for Parliament could be compelled to read this short but
pregnant chapter Mr Cunningham proceeds to point out that “if the
Empire is to be maintained and practically made use of there must be an

148

Reviews and Notices

organized direction of Imperial affairs,” they cannot be treated as a mere
adjunct to the local affairs of Great Britain Elected as it is, the time of
Parliament is almost entirely occupied with matters of immediate interest
to the electors, and especially to organized labour Such an assembly has
not time to deal adequately with questions affecting the Dominions overseas,
and is often too imperfectly informed upon such questions to form sound
decisions upon them He therefore advocates an Imperial Parliament for
the whole Empire — and as a part of the scheme Provincial Parliaments for
England, Wales, Scotland, Ulster, and South Ireland — something like the
Dominion Parliament and local Legislatures of British North America We
need not follow him into the complicated details of this proposition, con
fining ourselves to the observation that the author of the scheme himself
does not venture to define what would be the position of India under it
(p 107) But he is unquestionably right in regarding the subject as one
of vital and immediate importance to the Empire The admission of the
self governing Dominions as direct participants in the treaty of peace has
effected an organic change in old conditions, and this change cannot stand
alone An Empire which comprises about a fifth of the whole world must
find the right waj of co ordinating its several parts in an enduring system
of self government The question of Dominion representation, whether in
a supreme Parliament or an Imperial Council, is closely bound up with the
trade of the Empire and the use, for the benefit of the whole, of Us vast
resources These treasures must never again be allowed to be controlled
by alien enemies Every politician, everyone who has fought or suffered
or made sacrifices in the terrible years that are past ought to devote his
deepest thought to the serious and urgent question of the future government
of the Empire This timely little book is well adapted to promote serious
thought on the subject, and we hope it may have a large circulation

C

Th* Sea Commonwealth and Other Papers Edited by A P
Newton (/ M Dent and Sons) 1919 Pp 130
The six papers contained in this book, which are entirely unconnected
with each other, were delivered as lectures in an Imperial Studies course
in the University of I ondon, King s College, during the Session 1917 18
Of the value and indeed the imperative necessity of such studies there can
be no doubt A democracy which has suddenly found itself charged with
the settlement of the affairs of a world in confusion is in sore need of a
larger store of knowledge — historical, geographical, and ethnographical —
than most of its members possess These lectures, by authors whose com
petence is undoubted, and packed full of information, will help to spread
this necessary knowledge As Mr Caxton remarked when confronted
with a prophecy of universal peace, “ the past helps me to judge of the
present,” and we feel that the University and its lecturers are entitled to
high praise for their effort to promote Imperial Studies among a
nation which has to decide Imperial issues The first lecture, which
gives its title to the book, “The Sea Commonwealth," by Sir Julian

Reviews and Notices

49

Corbett, is a bold assertion of the vital necessity to the Empire of Sea
Power It is pointed out that the great members of the Empire may
become separate centres of foreign policy, but that “ they must one and all
be dependent upon sea power, and since, in this connection at least, the
sea is all one, the old bond of union reasserts itself more strongly than
ever " Other Powers have chafed under it and only endured it because
“all men, no matter whence they hailed, were free to come and go,
free to trade as they would, free to gather and enjoy what they could find,”
because, in short, our sea power was a convenience to the world So
far everybody would agree, but the author's further proposition is more
debatable He sees that the desire for fiscal union withm the Empire
and the closing of the “ open door ” might produce new and formidable
resistance to our sea power in the nations who have hitherto grudgingly
acquiesced in it Will they continue to do so “ if so vast a measure of
sea power is tainted with restriction of trade ”? We do not share these
apprehensions Our sea power has always been disliked and contested
The Dutch in the seventeenth century, the French and Spanish in the
eighteenth, the United States in the nineteenth, fiercely assailed it, and in
the twentieth the German Empire, not deterred by the advantages of
the “open door,” made a deliberate effort to abolish it It will be as
much disliked in the future as it has been in the past, and if it be in the
interests of the Empire to introduce fiscal union between its parts, we
need not be deterred from doing so by any vain hope of making our sea
supremacy popular If the policy of Free Trade could not prevent the
late terrible war, how can it be a factor in the question at all ?

Very apposite to this discussion is the third essay in this volume, “ The
Colonial Aspirations of Germany,” by (the late) J C Mackenzie This
writer shows how useless and futile all the friendship and all the conces
sions of England to Germany in colonial matters always proved because of
the ulterior aims of the latter Her avowed reasons for colonization
were not the real ones It is a fiction that Germany had a large surplus
population which must find an outlet She has to import a million
foreigners to till German soil and work German mines, and the whole white
population of the German colonies never exceeded 20,000 It is a fiction
that she needed them for trade “ Germany’s whole trade with her
colonies m 1913 was just one half of one per cent of her whole foreign
trade “ German colonial aspirations are entirely contained in German
world ambitions ” The German aim before the war was the creation of
“ a Colonial Empire stretching right across Africa, linking German East
Africa through the Belgian Congo with a much enlarged German Cameroon
and running down through Angola to an enlarged German South West
Africa ” (p 46) It was to be a strategic position, a new Germany based
upon the open sea And its aim would be, according to Herr Zimmermann,
to interrupt the traffic between England and India or Australia These
plans of Weltpohtik were not frustrated by the policy of the “open door,’
but by British sea power

Turning to the other essays in this volume, “Prance and Colonial

Reviews and Notices

*50

Power,” by Professor Paul Mantoux, gives an excellent sketch of the history
of the present colonial empire of France from its beginning with the
conquest of Algiers m 1830, followed by an account of the products of
these colonies and of their contributions of man-power during the war
He ends with the brave words that m the future “ the need for bold enter
prise will be found everywhere, and promises great rewards Then it is
that all the reserves of strength and wealth which the French colonies keep
for France and for the world will be thrown into the scale where sinks and
rises the greatness of nations” (p 28)

The essay on “ 1 he Monroe Doctrine and its Transformation,” by
Professor Pollard, is of the excellence we should expect from the honoured
name of its author, who touches nothing that he does not adorn We
have never seen any account of this much discussed pronouncement which
gives so clear a review of the historical situation which led up to it,
and of what it meant when it was uttered Professor Pollard shows that it
was in the spirit of this doctrine and its ultimate purpose of peace that
the United States came into the late war “ For the nation accustomed to
war regirded it as the final arbitrament wherever the conflict might arise,
and the people which believed in arbitration also believed in its universal
application One or the other must become the general rule common
to both the worlds , and inasmuch as no arbitration could compel the
believer in war to abandon his weapons, the apostles of peace were driven
to drawing the sword to disarm him (p 66)

The essay on “ ! he Development of Africa, ’ by Sir H H Johnston,
perhaps the highest living authority on the subject, contains 111 thirty three
pages a sketch of the whole subject of the ethnography, history, present
condition, and future prospects of that continent Beginning in the Ice
Ages and sweeping through prehistoric time “ forty or fifty thousand years
ago,” and closely packe 1 with facts, its very conciseness and fullness
render it rather bewildering to the reader We know that the author is to
be trusted, but the matter in this little essay would be easier to grasp if it
were diluted into an octavo volume

“ Problems of the Pacific, ’ by Basil Thomson, contains an interesting
description of the physical beaut) of the island scenery, and discussions as
to the qualities and future destinies of the native races He records con
versations seventeen years ago with Dr Solf, the former German Governor
of Samoa, who confided to him his intention to copy the British methods
of dealing with the natives, but that his great difficulty was money. “ He
could not hope to get from the Reichstag the funds necessary for colonial
administration ” (p 124)

We cannot lay down this volume without expressing the hope that the
University of London will continue to afford its students instruction of
this character C

Reviews and Notices

* 5 *

POETR\

Poems of Dawn and th* Nkhi By Henry Mond (London
Chapman and Hall , Ltd.) 1919

This weird, wild, rollicking collection of rushing verse is full of the
strength of youth, and gives promise of a middle age of Swmburman
grace and melody

From the “ Dedicatory Sonnet on to the “ Sapphics” — hymning the
beauty, the fragrance, the body, the hair, the eyes, and the bps of
“ Beautiful Aphrodite of the Throne embr udtred the lines "have been
kissed and set free ' by a vision tint the songster describes as half of him
self, who, silently folding him in her white arms, has stifled his perfect
songs into perfect sighs

These songs have been named “ I’oe ns of Dawn and of the Night,”
but there is much of the stare and the glare and the fierce light of the
full mid-day about most of them' Witness “ The Staves of Youth,”
"The Dance," and the "Scarlet HecL 1 Ygain the young poet has
evidently studied and imbibed the scornful and defiant doubts of FitzGerald,
and, in so doing, has signally failed to appreciate the deep faith of the true-
believing mystic, Omar, as may be seen from these lines

“ Upon this earth to come 1 did not seek,

And I 11 have all the good things to be bought
Within this paltry marble flung in space
No profit to the Infinite my bn th has brought,

No profit brings m> death , but in this place
Since sumething me created I’ll not be
An atom Me, through all eternity,

I he gods must tolerate for evermore

I’m not content to lie upon the floor

Of this foul harlot earth and take

Such kindness as your godship pleases to make ,

I never asked thee to be made, hut now
That I am made, I must he e’en as thou ’ ’

The Lover is out to enjoy himself whatever happens, and is determined
to pursue Happiness direct for her own sake

“ Earth and Heaven vie
Offers of Sacrament, with sensuous stare
Of moulded colour’s passionate mastery.

Ah, deai one, throw your head back once again
And let this soft hair tumble on my hand ,

Soft as the breezes sighing thro’ the bough
Astride the woods when sunlight mingles rain,

For in the splendour of our youth we know
All the philosophies of every land,

And in a kiss the Universe is ours
And the eternities of spinning suns
Are overreached and dwindled into dust I ’

Reviews and Notices

*52

But this is a palpable case of Atalanta's apples There 1* the nng of
the lines on “ Death,” and the poet’s phrase describing “ a bush of dark
green holly " as 11 merrily sprinkled with the scarlet berry ” will probably
live We cannot say we like the lines on “ War,” or ** Bellona,” or “ The
Silver Corpse,” but the simple “ Evening Hymn of the Shell Shock
Hospital " and “ Evensong " are tender and true, and breathe the poet's
soul, while even the airy and flippant “ Envoi Philosophique ” with which
the little collection closes has poetic merit of its own W

CURRENT PERIODICALS

Imptriai Institute Monographs Manganese Ores (116 pp ), by
A H Curtis , Tin Ores (1 1 1 pp ), by G M Davies ( John Murray )
38 6d each net

To the chemist or the engineer interested in metallurgy or mining who
hitherto has had to refer to the monographs published by the United
States Geological Survey these books vs ill come as a boon, they embody
a mass of information worth far more than the published price, they con-
tain extensive bibliographical appendixes, and they show how well the
British Empire is endowed with mineral resources Almost every tin
bearing locality is under the Union Jack, and India comes a good second
in the list of manganese producers

Another volume in this senes will deal with tungsten

The Review of Revtervs (November) contains a startling article entitled,
" Turkish Massacres in Asia Minor,” by W A Lloyd A New Zealander
by birth, he seived with the Australian forces during the war, and has
since last spring devoted his energies to an investigation of the conditions
m Asia Minor since the armistice

LITERARY NOTES

Japanese family and personal names and place names are one of the
stumbling-blocks of that difficult language, so much so that officially the
personal names of members of the Diet are read in Chinese fashion to
save chances of error , for instance, one may read Baichu when the owner
of the name reads it Umetada, and Keiki when one should say Yoshinon.
European collectors of Japanese works of art have found this rather
troublesome, and lists of names of artists are found in various books, but
hitherto no systematic treatise on the subject has been available The
material is so formidable that one might hesitate before dealing with it,
and be content, like most of us have done, to use some makeshift Mr.
A J Koop, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, undertook the task some

Reviews and Notices

153

years ago, and with an industry altogether beyond words of praise, he has
dissected year-books, dictionaries, and other lists of names, classified the
material, and compiled a large quarto book, which will be indispensable
to all students of Japanese The various characters and their combina-
tions form the dictionary part of the book, and a senes of introductory
tables give numencal categones, names of Emperors, date names, etc.,
making the work as comprehensive as might be desired The war delayed
the publication of this book, but a portion of it is now almost ready for
issue , interested readers should communicate with the author or with
Messrs. B Quantch. H L J

1 54

ASIA MINOR AND THE DODECANESE

By Andreas C. Michalopoulos, o.b.e.

The Near East is a corner of the world about which many
people write and talk, many politicians hold theories, and
most Governments make blunders. It is a corner of the
world which undoubtedly presents many difficulties, but
these are constantly being increased and complicated owing
to the unwillingness of those in authority to face facts
honestly, or their inability to obtain from their agents an
accurate account of them. In an age when Machia-
vellian principles are falling into discredit, and when the
world is waking up to the fact that honesty is, after all, the
best policy, and that a readjustment of nations in accord-
ance with the principle of self-determination of peoples
alone can ensure a durable peace, it would seem particularly
desirable that an effort should be made to solve the
" Eastern Problem ” definitely on these lines.

It is in no way an exaggeration to say that the funda-
mental principle underlying Hellenic aspirations in Thrace,
Asia Minor, and the Dodecanese is not one of imperialism,
it is not an unjustifiable desire for conquest in strange
lands, but it is a very legitimate determination to redeem
from a foreign and oppressive yoke millions of Hellenes in
districts where they are in a majority and the ruling race in
a distinct minority.

Even the most bigoted supporters of the Turkish cause
cannot deny that the littoral provinces of Asia Minor, as
well as all the /Egean Islands, are inhabited almost entirely
by Greeks, and that the Turkish element preponderates
only in the interior.

It is obvious that as long as lands essentially Greek,
racially, intellectually, and commercially, remain in foreign
hands, it is impossible to avoid friction which must

Asia Minor and the Dodecanese 155

ultimately result in new wars. Moreover it is a very
definite fact that one hope has ever been latent in every
Greek’s heart, to the realization of which the general
policy of the nation as a whole must always of necessity
tend— despite many attempts to thwart it from the quarters
whence Greece expects most sympathy — and that is the
hope that at some future day all Hellenes will be united,
and that the Greek Kingdom will extend from the Ionian
to the Black Sea, and include within its limits Thrace, the
coast-lands of Asia Minor, and Constantinople. This is
not merely an arrogant intellectual fancy : it is not, as has
so often been wrongly asserted, a dream which has its only
source in historical tradition : it is not a wild ideal with the
object of resuscitating the Byzantine Empire ; but it is the
voice of a people determined to be free, more than half of
whom are still in a state of the most abject subjection to a
foreign race, savage in its customs and ruthless in its
treatment of alien subjects.

It would not be reasonable to suppose that these
national aspirations are immediately realizable. This
would not even be desirable, chiefly because the difficulties
of administration following upon a sudden expansion over
too large an area would be extremely great. If our
rights to expansion are recognized, we are content to
achieve that expansion gradually. In the assignment of
Smyrna to Greece we have a proof of the goodwill of the
Great Powers, and the first step in the right direction has
been made. But the mere possession of the town of
Smyrna will be of very little value to any country, least of
all to Greece, unless it is accompanied by a sufficient
portion of the hinterland to support it economically and to
maintain its trade on its pre-war level, and also to safe-
guard it against the aggression of an ever-vigilant foe
beyond the border. Economically Smyrna depends for the
most part on its export trade of agricultural produce; all
its wealth emanates from the extremely fertile vilayets of
Aidin and Brussa. If the greater part of these provinces is
left to Turkey, it is obvious that it will eventually be found

156 Asia Minor and ike Dodecanese

more expedient to transport their produce by the Bagdad
Railway to Constantinople, or some Turkish port on the
Black Sea or in Southern Asia Minor, rather than send it
through Smyrna, which will then be a foreign port. The
result will be that Smyrna will be reduced to a state of
economic starvation.

It is precisely this economic starvation that several big
European exporting companies in Smyrna fear, and this
would afford ample scope for the agitation in certain semi-
official circles on behalf of the retention of Smyrna by
Turkey. The simplest as well as the justest solution of
the problem is to give to Greece, together with Smyrna,
the vilayet of Aidin and rather more than half of the
vilayet of Brussa, to which she has an ethnological as well
as a commercial right. But this solution might again be
opposed by the European merchants, who know that they
will not, under Greek rule, reap those vast benefits which a
lax Turkish administration afforded them, since Turkish
officials were always ready to be persuaded to accord
privileges to influential foreigners, which their devotion to
duty and their reverence for the laws of the land would
never permit them to grant to the Greek merchants of
Smyrna who were their subjects. In these circumstances
it is only natural that the European Levantine should
assume in anticipation that Greek administration will be
essentially bad, and that his friends in Western Europe
should bestir themselves on behalf of the honest Turk.

There is another most important reason why a consider-
able hinterland should be given to Greece with Smyrna.
It will be quite impossible for Greece to defend a small,
isolated piece of territory which has no actual boundaries or
defences unless she decides to maintain a strong army of
occupation permanently in Smyrna : this is far too great a
burden for a country as small as Greece to take upon its
shoulders. It is precisely the necessity always to have a
standing army of defence, in order to guard against an
unexpected attack from the foes that surround her on every

Asia Minor and the Dodecanese 157

side, that has crippled Greece financially in the past But
the acquisition of the vilayets of Aidin and Brussa would
enable her to mobilize an army of 200,000 fighting men of
Greek birth at any moment, and would effectually prevent
any hostile attack

To those Englishmen who know Greece well, and have
been able properly to appreciate the superiority of Hellenic
culture and civilization over that of any other nation of the
Near East, it must be patent that it is in the interests of
the general welfare of South-Eastern Europe that that
State should be supported in taking the lead which is most
qualified by its merits and development to promote peace
and commerce in that troublesome part of the world

Italian aspirations in the Near East have only their
unprecedented effrontery to recommend them The spirit
of imperialistic aggression which led Italy to occupy Tripoli
in 1 9 1 1 is now urging her to put forward claims upon vast
territories in Asia Minor not excluding Smyrna itself
which claims cannot possibly be justified either on grounds
of humanity or of racial affinity

If the unhappy inhabitants of Asia Minor are to be freed
from the oppression of the Turk in order to become
subjects of a nation which, during the past seven and a
half years, has given conclusive proofs of the liberality of its
culture and civilization by its treatment of the Dode-
canesians, their present ill fate is a thousand times to be
preferred to freedom under the Italian dag The well
attested and undeniable acts of barbarity and truculence
committed by the Italian authorities in the twelve Greek
islands of the South /Egean, which they have arbitrarily
taken over, need no comment here, but it would be inter-
esting to know on what principle if not on a medieval
principle of sheer conquest, 103 000 Hellenes, 10, coo
Turks, and 4,000 Jews are administered by the Italians,
unless it be that those eminently manly virtues, and that
administrative genius which the Italians have inherited
from ancient Rome, entitle them to spread their beneficial
aegis over the whole Mediterranean.

THE BALKAN PENINSULA

By P E Drakoules, led

I am asked to express an opinion as to the possibility of
a Balkan Confederation and on the affairs of Greece

A Balkan Confederation is inconceivable so long as the
hatreds cultivated by the politicians exist, so long as the
Turkish question remains unsolved, so long as Italy nurtures
Imperialistic designs

A reorganization of the Balkan States on the basis of
Labour ideals would make the project of Confederation
enter the domain of practical politics, but it is useless to
expect that the Turkish people should be denied the right
of forming a democratic State although I do not think this
advisable on European soil The progress of Socialism in
Italy will be conducive to the realization of the Balkan
Confederation because all the Italian Socialists are disposed
favourably towards the Hellenic aspirations which they
acKnowledge to be just, and they know that Greece is
never Imperialistic Hellenic ideals coincide to a great
extent with Labour ideals This is a point I have had
opportunity to point out in my recent tour in the United
States, and I found there the minds well prepared to reajize
this truth, by the lectures of Professor Gilbeit Murray, who
some years ago emphasized the fact that the development
of contemporary Labour ideals was largely due to Greek
studies in England and elsewhere

It is this impression that makes me have confidence in
the future of the Near East, inasmuch as it can be built on
Hellenic culture It is gratifying therefore to feel that this
view is furthered by Italian Socialists From a national
point of view there could be nothing better for Greece

The Balkan Peninsula

'59

than the prevalence of Socialist opinion in Italy Greece
can turn to the reconstruction of which she is in need as
soon as she feels she has nothing to fear from Turkey or
Italy

As to Bulgaria, the trend of events is modifying her
attitude It will be a long time before her politicians are
again enabled to provoke quarrels in connection with
Salonica and the Aigean Meanwhile in Bulgaria, as in
Italy, the growth of Socialism is favourable to Greece and
consequently to the birth of a Balkan Confederation

The scheme entertained assiduously before the war by
Prussianizing Socialists was to bring about a Balkan Con-
federation under Ferdinand of Bulgaria, which of course
was a German Empire scheme * Nous avons change
tout cela ’ now, and I can aver that there is no real hatred
between the Bulgarian masses and the Gieek masses
All that hatred was engendered by foreign intrigue and
plutocratic schemes Foreign interference in the Balkan
States has been always detrimental to their development*
and if they are disposed to come to an Entente between
themselves, each must religiously try to keep aloof from
interested foreign wire-pullers

In proportion as Labour problems are solved in favour
of the productive classes, differences will cease between
any group of Balkan peoples, such as between Serbia and
Roumania or Serbia and Montenegro, or Jugoslavia and
Italy It is all a question of more light, for as long as the
masses are kept unenlightened the elements prone to quarrel
will make unity impossible And the same may be said
with regard to the Greco-Albaman relations Both Greeks
and Albanians are beginning to understand that they have
common interests even as they have a common origin

The reputation of Socialism has lately much suffered in
all countries, partly because it was identified with the
hypnotic influence exercised everywhere on Socialists by

* See my article in the Asiatic Review of February, 1915, on the
Balkan Question

i6o

The Balkan Peninsula

German exertions, and partly because of the Bolshevist
misapplication of the ideal But this must not prejudice us
against the eternal verities which constitute the basis of
Socialism I am not afraid of handfuls of pseudo-Socialists
here and there, and firmly believe that Socialism, well
understood, has a future in the Balkans as elsewhere. There
are rudimentary Socialist parties in the Balkan States, and
the Greek Socialist party can only thrive in solidarity with
the Socialist parties in the rest of the Peninsula, all aiming
at a Balkan Co operative Commonwealth The general
tendency is anti-monarchic and anti dictatorial As far as
the Greek Socialist party is concerned, it certainly has a
future It seems to me destined to save the nation from
the peril of a misapplied Soviet experiment and on the
other hand from the monarchical menace, whether this
comes from Restorationists or from plutocratic politicians
Its present role is to watch developments and check
arbitrary tendencies, so as to cause a mitigation of the ills
prevalent at present in Greece, such as Martial Law
Censorship, terrorism, profiteering, poverty and discontent
at what is considered a desertion of Greece by the Allies
after all the great sacrifices she made in the endeavour to
win the war I he Greek Socialists are the only force in
Greece which desires changes independently of party
politics They are inspired by the desire to diminish the
present intolerable conditions of the people and to avert
serious dangers These dangers are real and lie in the
path of Mr Venizeloss policy, which therefore should be
modified accordingly so as to meet new conditions and new
requirements But whatever are the issues of the near
future Greece must cultivate friendships everywhere
without surrendering a tithe of her sense of self-existence,
and 1 take it for granted that it is the interest of her
neighbours and of her well-wishers beyond the Peninsula
to promote the efforts of the Greek people to be indepen-
dent and contented

i6

FAR EASTERN STUDIES
By Sir E. Denison Ross

It is interesting to realize that since the beginning of the Christian era up
to the present day Asia has been quite as profoundly modified as
Europe m the corresponding period Indeed there is no current phrase
which contains a greater fallacy than the term “ Unchanging East.” The
history of the East abounds in changes of every kind religion, govern-
ment, fashions, and so forth, perhaps more than the history of Europe,
say, since the Middle Ages

Moreover, the term “ Asia,” when we come to use it in a general
sense, is far too general a name. Asia, of which we still know so little
compared with what we know of Europe, comprises such utterly different
countries and races that it is absurd for us to speak of Orientals as if they
were one huge race with common characteristics This impression was
gained by the West in the days when our knowledge was confined to
hearsay and books

In the early days, before men travelled extensively, tne whole Last
seemed indistinguishable in the same way that when we first see them we
are apt to think all Chinamen alike.

My principal theme is as follows Our conception of history as a whole
has been wanting in true perspective, owing to the dominating foreground
of familiar episodes to the exclusion of those which are less familiar
That is to say, certain periods of history and the scenes in which they
were enacted have been so extensively studied, and form such an
inevitable part of our educational curricula, that we most of us grow
up under the impression that the whole history of mankind is con-
tained in that of the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews, and of modern
Europe,

Up to the end of the eighteenth century there was indeed some excuse
for this narrow outlook, for until then little or nothing was known of the
past or present inhabitants of the greater part of Asia , but no such excuse
exists to-day. During the last 150 years scholars of a dozen different
nations have devoted themselves to the study of the history, languages,
geography, and ethnology of Asia, and have produced an enormous mass
of literature dealing with every aspect of these problems. Nevertheless,
one excuse for our ignorance still exists to-day, and that excuse is the fact
that this vast assemblage of data has never heen co-ordinated or made
accessible to the general student of history. The time has certainly
arrived for some organized attempt to remedy this state of affairs. Even
VOL. XVI. L

Far Eastern Studies

162

Remusat, writing in 1826, made a similar complaint How much more is
one justified in doing so to day, in view of the wonderful discoveries made
in every corner of Asia in the last hundred years !

Before I pass to the consideration of a practical remedy, I would like to
indicate more precisely the nature of those obstacles which have to be
surmounted, and in doing so I shall make myself clearer if I confine my
remarks to the Middle East, although I have in my mind the whole of the
East, from Suez to Japan , for the history of all the peoples of Asia is
closely interwoven, and their intercourse with one another is revealed more
clearly as our studies advance There are, of course, huge gaps in our know-
ledge of the earlier civilizations, due, on the one hand, to the destruction
by Nature or by man of monuments or literature and, on the other hand,
to the fact that some of the nations never possessed either The Iranians
and the Turanians certainly had chronicles of their own in pre Muham
madan times, but they have only been preserved at second hand The
great Persian Lpic of Kings of Firdausi was based on written traditions,
of which few survive, and the great historian of the Mongols, Rashid
Ud Dm, tells us that he consulted many old Turkish chronicles, none of
which have come down to us The Indians, on the other hand, were
averse from writing history, their men of letters considering philosophy
and grammar more profitable studies It is not till we come to the
Muhammadan period that we find the chronicles of India set down
in writing What precedes has to be pieced together from the inscriptions
and the coins, and it is Greek and Chinese writers who made this task
possible’ But on the whole India has fared better at the hands of the
modern historian than any other country m the East This is due partly
to the noble array of scholars who have lived in British India, and partly
to the spread of English education among the Indians, which has created
a demand for systematized Indian history

China has excelled all other nations in the making of chronicles, but
there remains still much to be done in the field of their translation and
interpretation It is to be hoped that some day a complete critical trans
lation of the twenty four dynastic histones may be undertaken by a group
of scholars

It is essential that a certain number of scholars in the field of Oriental
linguistics should spread their net a little wider than is usually the case
with specialists, and thus attempt to piece together various materials and
data which have been collected by specialists, but which go to make up
one complete story In recent times a number of eminent scholars have
rendered great services to science by extending the field of their researches
outside the conventional limits of their mam subject For example,
Professor Sylvain Levi, the eminent Sanskntist, has done important work
by the additional help of Chinese. Professor Pelliot, who is one of the
greatest living Chinese scholars, has, with his marvellous linguistic gifts,
thrown his net very wide, and has thereby been able to deal with many
vaned aspects of Central Asian archaeology He has lately, for example,
been engaged on editing and translating the secret history of the Mongol
dynasty, a work which has a most romantic history, and is of the utmost

Far Eastern Studies

163

hrstoncal importance. Another scholar who has furnished us with a
remarkable series of papers on a great \anety of subjects connected with
the philology and ethnography and culture of China and Central Asia
is Dr. Laufer of Chicago, who has acquired an intimate acquaintance with
such different and difficult languages as Chinese, Sanskrit, and 1 ibetan
Much important material would have been lost to us had these scholars
whom I have just mentioned confined their studies to one group

It is to be hoped that their example may now be followed by some of
the rising generation of Orientalists

The young student at the outset of his career naturally makes some par
ticular language or group of languages his speciality, and is possessed of
the laudable ambition of becoming an authority in his special subject , but
nowadays, when so much ground has been broken m almost every field of
Asiatic research, we need the services of scholars who, at a comparatively
early age, would be willing to forgo the glories of specialization, and
after laying a sound foundation m one particular branch, would be pre-
pared to devote themselves to the collocation of a vast mass of materials
which are now available, and help us to focus and bring into their proper
perspective the whole panorama of Asiatic history But apart from
linguistics, we as Orientalists need the collaboration of workers in all the
other fields of Asiatic research

The term “ Orientalist ’ itself is used in far too narrow a sense — indeed
by the general public it is often totally misunderstood 1 heard only re-
cently that someone remarked to one of our teachers, apropos of Oriental
studies “You don’t really believe in these things, dd you ?" from which
iny friend inferred that the speaker thought the School of Oriental Studies
was a temple of Blavatskyism I his is by the way

Orientalism should include many branches of science and reseat ch
which we are not apt to associate with the name We need, in order to
understand the history, religion, and habits of \siatic peoples and thur
migrations, the aid of naturalists, anthropologists, geographers, and so
forth In such fields of research as I gyptology and \ssynology, where
from the first the traveller and excavator have been to the forefront, and
the written word was only deciphered at a later stage, the foundation
of studies has been on a broader basis than m the case of peoples and
countries who have first become known to us through the medium of
their literatures Frofessor Breasted has pointed out m a recent paper the
great advantages under which the students of early American history
have worked owing to the very absence of documents and inscriptions
What is needed, then, is the co ordination of the available material
dealing with every aspect of Asiatic research

So much for the personal element I will now pass to what may be
regarded as one of the greatest difficulties with which the student of
Asiatic history and culture is confronted— namely, the difficulty, not only
of ascertaining what has been written of any value on a particular subject
in the past, but also of keeping himself abreast of what has appeared from
day to day.

Personally I may confess that I began my Central Asian studies— with-

Far Eastern Studies

164

out guidance, it is true — at the wrong end I merely took what I could
find, and there was no book to tell me what had been done. I was first
attracted to these studies by the manuscripts discovered by Stem, and
especially by those m the old Turkish language Shortly after the first
results of Central Asian exploration were made known to the world, a
number of scholarly papers appeared dealing with the various subjects ,
but without wishing to imply that the new writers denied any credit due to
their predecessors in the field, I certainly received the impression that
they were discovering more than they had learnt I will explain what I
mean later

If we take the subject of Central Asia with its history as known from the
Chinese chronicles, and its languages and culture which have lately been
revealed to us, it will afloid a good example of the chaos of materials in
which the student will find himself engulfed Before the invention of
Orientalists’ journals — and the earliest of these was, I believe, that pub-
lished by the Asiatic Society of Bengal — it may have been comparatively
easy to ketp pace with most of the literature bearing on China and her
Western neighbours, which appeared in trench, English, and German
With the Russian works, of which there were many and important ones,
it was another story, for the knowledge of the Russian language was very
rare outside Russia until comparatively recent times, and thus it happened
that important translations from the Chinese and other works of a similar
nature were for the most part ignored and, m some cases, lost sight of
altogether But since the invention of journals and the foundation of so
many Oriental societies, it lias been almost impossible for a single man to
keep pace with ail that appeared, even on a most specialized subject
How much the more in such a vast subject as the Western neighbours of
China i And it is in v ew of such considerations that I wish to advocate
the institution of some systematic guide to all the various branches of
Asiatic research Such a guide could not well be undertaken by any
single individual, but would require theco operation of a number of scholars
and a central org mzition It would, I fancy, be easier to deal with
the whole of Asia rather than with sections, and certainly far more useful.
What is required is a work in the nature of a subject index to a library,
with this difference — that individual pamphlets would play an equally im-
portant part with books Every journal purporting to deal with the East
should be indexed not merely the lournals of Oriental societies, but the
journals, memoirs, and publications of every society which contain articles
on Asiatic topics Anthropological journals of all countries are full of
materials of the deepest interest to Orientalists, but are often apt to be
overlooked by them

If such a scheme as I suggest could be realized, it would be the further
duty of the central organization to keep scholars who desire it informed of
the work which was being undertaken by their colleagues There can
hardly be a scholar wi 0 has not experienced the misfortune of finding that
he hid devoted a great deal of time to a subject which either had already
been treated or on which someone else was also working This has
happened to myself more than once, and although Orientalists have a pro

Far Eastern Studies

165

▼erbial name for quarrelling, I cannot help thinking that if there were to
be some such means as I suggest for keeping in touch with the labours of
other scholars, they would be willing to sink ail rivalry, and very often one
or other of the scholars would hand over his material.

I may be permitted to mention incidentally that only recently when
Professor Pelhot was visiting this country, I handed over to him all the
material I had collected in the shape of old Uighur Chinese vocabularies,
knowing that he would be able to deal w ith them far more efficiently than
I could , and I did so without any feeling that I had wasted my time m
collecting such material, or that I was performing an act of self-demal

Since writing these remarks — which give expression to feelings that I
have long entertained — I have heard that the Royal Society and the
British Academy are about to publish a new monthly journal under the
title of Discovery , the aim of which will be to present in a popular form
the progress of knowledge in all its chief branches The communique
issued to the Press says

“The control of the trustees will he final, but they will exercise it
through a managing committee, which they will appoint on the
nomination of a large number of bodies, thechiei of whom are the
conjoint board of Scientific Societies, who will nominate five members,
the Classical, Historical, English, and Geographical Associations, each
of whom will nominate one member, and the Modern Language
Association, if, as is hoped, that body also adheres to the scheme.

“ The British Psychological Society and the Royal Society of
Economics will also appoint one member

“ All these specialist associations undertake to supply, year by year,
for the editors use, a list of contributors capable of representing
different sides of their particular branch of knowledge by aiticles or
series of articles, of a thoroughly popular kind, which will, however,
always contain references to the books or penoduals in which the
subject of the article can be pursued more fully ’’

This is certainly a most laudable enterprise — but it does not seem to
meet the need to which I have referred In the first place it is avowedly
popular, and in the second place it does not seem to embrace the East.
This is, I presume, due to the notion that “discoveries” do not come from
the East, though it scarcely needs to be demonstrated that we owe to the
East among other matters of importance our religion and our alphabets,
not to mention the credit claimed for Chiua of having discovered gun
powder and the taxi-cab.

But the announcement of this new journal has suggested to me the
establishment of a journal on somewhat similar lines dealing with Asiatic
research. For it now occurs to me that the best solution of the problem
before us might be the publication of, say, a quarterly journal containing,
in addition to a list of all books and articles which have recently been
published on Asiatic subjects with a brief r6sum£ of thair contents, notes
on recent explorations, lectures, and controversies. Such a journal might
perhaps be also undertaken by the British Academy — which counts among
its members a certain number of Oriental scholars I would suggest as a
title “ Asiatic Researches thus reviving an old name.

I see no reason why such a journal should not at the same time publish

Far Eastern Studies

166

with each number complete bibliographies of one or more of the main sub-
divisions of Oriental studies, such as Buddhism in China, Christianity in
Central Asia, and so forth The subdivisions having been decided upon, a
certain number might appear with each issue of the journal, so that ulti-
mately the journal would contain a complete guide to sources of information
of all Asiatic topics

[Perhaps the Asiatic Review could undertake such a work either
as a separate publication or as a supplement to the existing issue It
is already publishing proceedings and r6sum£s of Asiatic Societies and,
m its Literary Supplement, bringing under notice as many as possible
of the important books on Asia An extension on the lines indicated
above should therefore prove most valuable — Ld A R ]

i6 7

GREEK NOTES
By F. R Scatcherd
I The Future of Greece*

In a conversation between M Venizelos and Dr Drakoulis in Pans on
the eve of the Prime Minister s departure and the signature of the Bulgarian
Treaty, the national problem and the internal affairs of Greece formed the
main subjects of discussion

M Venizelos believes that Smyrna will remain Greek and that the
Dodekanessos will soon form part of the Hellenic State Even for Thrace
he has every reason to hope that the whole of it is destined to be added to
Greece That Bulgaria has been driven away from the Aegean is, he says,
an achievement for which any sacrifice could be justified

M Venizelos looks forward to the signature of the Turkish Treaty for a
definite solution of the Greek national problem

Dr Drakoulis expressed the Labour feeling of Greece as to the delays
which render the internal situation precarious, inasmuch as it necessitates
the continuance of martial law, censorship, and a kind of mild terrorism.
With profiteering rampant, the high cost of living, and widely spread
privation, Greece is now about the most harassed country in Europe

The conclusion of Dr Drakoulis is that fundamental political changes
are needed, and he suggested the creation of a separate authority to deal
with questions affecting the working classes, independent of Parliament

M Venizelos recognizes the importance of the I abour problem, but
thinks that much has been done by his administration towards its solution,
and that anyhow it must remain dormant until after the signature of the
Turkish 1 reaty

Dr Drakoulis, while agreeing that waiting is expedient, warned the
Premier that a great storm of discontent is brewing in Greece, which may
break out before the Constituent Assembly, contemplated by M
Venizelos, has time to be elected

II Greece an Epitome o* the World

Reading the reports of the above conversation produced a strange
impression upon me Greece became the world, her ex king Constantine
representing the dead or dying Fast, her Premier Venizelos the sane and
reasoned Present , while the intransigent lover of humanity incarnating the
unbom Future cnes aloud

“ Fiat justitia, ruat coelam

“ Dr Drakoulis,” I said, “ you say that during the war the times have
marched with such gigantic strides, as far as popular ideals are concerned,
that men even of the calibre of M Venizelos risk being left behind Is
there not an even greater danger of men of idealistic temperament failing
to gauge the depths of savagery and unreason to which the less instructed
may sink if trusted with power they are unfitted to wield ?”

* Le Journal des Hellhnes, November, 1919, The Review of Reviews,
December, 1919 , Justice , etc

Greek Notes

1 68

“ What I emphasized almost exclusively m my conversation with
M Vemzelos,” replied Dr Drakoulis, “was the need for instruction, en
hghtenment, re education, or should I say de education, in order that
those who are entitled to administer the interest of the community may
realize their responsibilities and the people their destinies

“ In the first place, therefore, 1 should urge the reorganization of the
educational system on new foundations altogether In Greece, as m all
other countries education has always been on the basts of individual
profit Thus chronic profiteering as distinguished from contemporary,
acute profiteering has always characterized the nations

* I he new educational system should aim at making useful citizens
instead of money grubbers But the present mismanagers of civilization do
not sanction such a change Therefore I do not see how M Vemzelos
could revolutionize the educational system to the extent of militating
against the economic system, which as Prime Minister he is bound to
support ’

“ Why, then, all this criticism if action be impossible?’ I retorted
“ Because there will soon be a Constituent Assembly It is to be
hoped that it will create institutions tending towards this new spirit of
usefulness and social harmony So much does human intuition abhor
parasitism, that there is no one now but tries to justify his existence by
doing some work answering to his idea of usefulness

“There are two primary objects before a Prime Minister of goodwill
enjoying such a unique position

“ The first, as I have indicated, is a radical change in the educational
system so as to instil love for truth and justice

“ The second is the establishment of a new authority competent to deal
with the Labour problems which are sure to arise in Greece very soon
“The workers lack cohesion and organization Very much could be
done towards securing both by the initiative of the Government in a
country like Greece, where agriculture and industry are still m their
infancy

“ If the next National Assembly created a new I abour Authority, inde-
pendent even of Parliament, that authority would gradually grow to be
the new State — the Co operative Commonwealth

“ Events in Greece are impending which may be of a grave nature, and,
to my way of thinking, there is no means of averting danger except the
declaring of a policy of concession to the just demands for light, labour,
and leisure — the three chief planks in the platform of Ercvna

“ Were you Minister of Labour, how would you secure order now that
labour believes only in the rights of one class, its own, to any considera
tion, or even to the right of existence ?”

“There is only one class, or there ought to be — the class of useful
citizens, and they are the only set of human beings that has any right to
exist, * said Dr Drakoulis

“ Would you have little Greece, at this moment, break with her sister-
nations by launching on a tempestuous, perilous sea, that might lose her
as Russia has been lost ?

* The common problem, yours, mine, everyone’s,

Is not to fancy what were fair in life
Provided it could be, but finding first
What may be, then find how to make it fair
Up to our means **

This common sense seems to me the pre eminent characteristic of
M Vemzelos, and fits him to be a wise pilot through the stormy period of

* Browning

Greek Notes

169

transition I never meet M Vemzelos without thinking of these lines.
It also appears to me that true Socialism must include all grades of human
society, that the ‘ tree of life for the healing of the nations ’ is a tree with
root, trunk, branches, flowers, and fruit, all forming a perfect whole, yet
no two leaves receiving exactly the same amount of air, water, and
sunshine ”

“Russia has not been lost," replied Dr Drakouhs “A new, sane
Russia will emerge from the furnace. As to what she may be I agree
with Browning Hence I am mainly interested in studying tendencies
and the force of things

“ Victor Hugo speaks of a mysterious text, ‘ /e texte mysterieux dt Dien ’
I try constantly to read it The war has been fought for larger issues
than the particular phases of a nation’s growth ”

“ Then do you believe that we are impelled by blind forces ? ’ I inquired

" No, things are thoughts crystallized The force of things has its springs
in the Power behind Evolution Cromwell was right when he said that
revolutions are made by God

* I quite agree with what you say about the all embracing nature
of Socialism, and that is what I try to impress upon the readers of
Erevna But remember that no leaf receives less of air, water, and
sunshine than is necessary for its life and growth So no human or
sub human being must receive less than is essential for its life and
growth ”

III Internal AFt airs of Greecf

“ We have little news from Greece just now What is going on there ? *

“ Although Vemzelism is not as popular as it was before the Peace
Conference, no healthy opposition to the Government such as I know the
Prime Minister himself would wish, can develop under present conditions
No political leaders, ible to voice the popular sentiment, well or ill founded,
that the origin of the present Venizelist administration is not constitutional,
have a real chance for action

“At the beginning of the war M Venizelos did not entertain the idea
of forming a Coalition Government, in order that anti Venizelist forces
should not remain out of power during such a great national crisis These
forces are now so situated as to be inadequate to form an opposition
commensurate with the popular discontent

“ If an anti Venizelist politician declares the Government is no longer
adequate to present circumstances all that a Venizelist has to retort is
‘ But where can its successor be found ? If it falls it will be reinstated,
stronger than ever, in a few days, because the political situation is a
deadlock ’

“ Feeble as it is, the voice of the Socialist party has an echo in the hearts
of the working classes It is argued that their wages have been increased,
but the fact is that the cost of living has increased even more because un
bndled profiteering has been permitted, for the reason that the Government
cannot afford to lose the support of the traders Freedom of speech does
not exist, and all allusions to the prevailing conditions of misery, terrorism,
and waste of public money are tabooed The newspapers are full of
blank spaces, and judging by the prohibited articles of my own paper,
Erevna , the Censor objects to reviews or translations of such innocent
matter as Adolph Smith s contributions to The Times or of books like
Professor Scott’s ‘ Syndicalism and Realism ’ The Erevna articles on
works like these are decorated by many blank spaces in obedience to the
Censor ”

“Now, Dr Drakouhs, you were not in England during the early

170 Greek Notes

years of the war Can you, in Greece, parallel the classic example when
our Censor deleted as seditious and dangerous Rudyard Kipling’s line

4 rhe captains and the kings depart ’?

One must remember also that not only is Greece still at war, but that
she has been deprived of the presence of her Prime Minister ail through
these long months of 4 peace making ’ Assuredly, as you yourself have
said, the magic of his presence will serve to remove the worst evils, perhaps
necessary, during his absence, and the unnecessary mercilessness of the
martial law and unreasoned ngorousness of the censorship will disappear
under a just and wise leadership ”

“Your words fit the situation fairly, but as it is the conditions to which
the Prime Minister is wedded that I deprecate, and not his own human
initiative, I do not need to withdraw what I have said The words you
have used would have fitted the situation still better before the Balkan
wars, when we all implicitly trusted the ‘just and wise leadership’ But
the hurricane came and swept away the landmarks Similarly now, may
all too suddenly come a hurricane, incomparably fiercer, which will
scarcely respect even the most benevolent of old regime administrations
The most constructive human agencies are powerless when creative cosmic
forces become irresistible ”

THE UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA AND
THEIR ENUMERATION

By Rev. H. U. Weitbrecht Stanton, ph.d., d.d.

[At a conference of representatives of British missionary societies, held
on September 28, 1916, the Bishop of Madras called attention to the
serious situation created by the illiteracy of the Christian community in
India owing to the large accessions through the mass movements.

The Annual Conference of Missionary Societies in Great Britain and
Ireland has arranged for the sending of a Commission to India to investi-
gate and report as to the extension of elementary education among rural
Christians, and such modifications of curriculum and methods as may be
desirable to adapt such education to the realities of Indian village life

The Commission started for India in October last Its members are as
follows Rev Alec Fraser (Principal of Trinity College, Kandy, Ceylon),
Mr. C Roberts (formerly Under Secretary ’of State for India), Miss Allan
(Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge), Mr Jesse Jones (Secretary,
Rockefeller Institute, America), Professor Fleming (late of Forman College,
Lahore, now Professor, Union College, New York), together with two
Indian members — viz., the Bishop of Domakal and Mr. K T Paul,
secretary of the National Council of Y M C A Missionaries now working
m India will be attached to the Commission during its tours in India, and
to assist m the preparation of the Report ]

My only qualification for attempting this intricate and
somewhat technical subject is that, in the course of mis-
sionary life in India, I have gone in and out among the
Untouchables of the Panjab for a good many years, and
have tried to learn what I could from and about them.
They are people well worth helping on every side of
human nature, and one has found real friends among
them. The outstanding impressions made upon the most
casual worker among the Indian Untouchables are those
of their illiteracy and their poverty. The latter is the

172 The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration

more poignant for a man may be intelligent though illite-
rate , but moving among these outcastes one feels almost
ashamed to be decently clad and sufficiently fed when one’s
fellow-creatures are so scant in both ways The task of
raising them is as tremendous as it is imperious The
administrator, with no little success, has been labouring at
it for generation^ , the missionary has brought home to
many a spiritual impulse resulting in social progress , and
the patriot has come to realize that a true national life
cannot be built up on a substructure of virtual slavery
No one of these classes is likely to accomplish the task
alone Their efforts need to be co ordinated on a basis
of solid fact, and, however much one may gibe at figures,
their accuracy is as needful for the successful prosecution
of this as of any other great undertaking

In the quarters with which I am best acquainted, but
in others also, appeals or statements about the Indian
Untouchables are enforced with estimates of their number
varying from 45 to 60 millions For these figures, so far
as I can find out no stable basis of calculation is given
Moreover, the tacit assumption seems to be that these
millions are pretty much on the same level as to social
and spiritual conditions The fact is that the so-called
“outcastes vary among themselves more than do the caste
Hindus The contrast between a Toda of the Nilgiris and
a well-to do Chamar of North India is much greater than
that between the Chamar and his Brahman neighbour
Indeed, in the case of the upper strata of the nominal
Untouchables (notably of the great Chamar community),
it is at present almost impossible to determine what pro-
portion belong to the uppermost section of the Untouchables
and what to the lowest section of the caste people Probably
the dividing line is movable

The term “ Untouchable,” as a name for the “depressed
classes,’ or “ outcastes,” is a revival of the most ancient
designation of these people In early times the aspnshya
(untouchable) Sudra stands below the four great varnas

The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration 173

(Brahman, Kshatrya, Vaisya, Sudra). The name has
recently come into prominence since the appearance of
an article by His Highness the Gaekwar of Baroda in
the National Review of December, 1909. In this able and
touching appeal on behalf of the “depressed classes/’ His
Highness points out that there are depressed classes who
are not outcastes. We may add that “outcaste” connotes
the idea of expulsion from caste which has rarely, if ever,
taken place, whereas “Untouchable” goes to the root of
the matter in that it describes the religious and social
attitude of the Hindu towards the outcaste, which con-
stitutes the degradation and misery of his position. The
term “Untouchable” in this essay means, therefore, that
part of the population of India which is not admitted to
any recognized social status in the Hindu community, and
is accordingly segregated from it without having gained
admission to either of the other organized religions of
Christianity or Islam.

Varied Elements among the Untouchables
It is well known that the Untouchables of India are
divided into two very different sections, which we may call
for convenience* sake the Aboriginal and the Domiciled.
The Aboriginals, generally speaking, live in more or less
separate territories, following their own primitive organiza-
tions and cults ; but many of them are merging into one or
other of the three great religions — Hinduism, Islam, or
Christianity. An appreciable number of some of these
tribes (as in the case of the Bhlls) are domiciled among
the general population. This illustrates the difficulty of
classification. The Bhils enumerated in the census as
“Hindus,” of course, no longer come under the heading
of “ Aboriginals." This is confined to the tribes which are
mainly or wholly “ animist.” But are these domiciled Bhils
still “ untouchable/’ or are they recognized as belonging to a
Hindu caste ? Here, again, the line of division is probably
shifting.

174 T/tf Untouchables of India and their Enumeration

What I have called the Domiciled Untouchables may be
taken to represent, in the main, the body of subjugated
aborigines who have been fitted on to the Hindu community
as an appendix, embracing occupations which are specially
menial and toilsome {eg . , scavenging and field labour) or
ceremonially degrading {e.g., leather-working). The variety
of religious belief and practice among this section is very
great. Generally speaking, they represent the animist
cults of their ancestors, in which, as generally in religious
development, ritual is more persistent than belief. In
some cases, as in the village cults of South India, depicted
by the Bishop of Madras , 0 this heritage actually gives them
precedence in certain acts of worship, where they seem to
represent the pre- Hindu priesthood. In other parts — eg.,
among the Chuhras of the Panjab — the old beliefs and
practices are much overlaid by the religion of the masters
whom they happen to serve. The Chuhras adopt names
and religious terms — Hindu, Sikh, or Musalman, as the case
may be. Some use the Hindu greeting Ram- Ram ; some
let hair and beard grow, like the Sikhs ; some have their
children married by a mulla. But everywhere is the mud
mound or pillar that represents the ancient tribal deity,
though some refer it to a Hindu sage, Balmik, others to
a Mohammedan teacher, Lai Beg. In the Western Panjab
considerable numbers have professed Islam, but are called
Musalli (little Moslems), and work and are treated as
scavengers. In the Central Panjab a certain number (the
Mazhabis) have been admitted to the Sikh religion, but
remain on a lower social status, without intermarriage. The
large number who have become Christians are in process
of dropping the caste distinction altogether as they rise
to a higher level of education and morals. These examples
may serve to illustrate the shifting conditions of status
among the Untouchables, accelerated, as they have been,
by the movement towards Christianity.

* The Village Gods of South India (Milford)

The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration 175

Sources of Estimate

It must be frankly premised that a study such as this has
to allow for a large margin of error. I suppose that there
is no one who is acquainted in any detail with all the castes
in India Certainly the information that I have been able
to secure is scattered and incomplete. The summaries that
I have found are (1) by Risley ( Peoples of India , first
edition, 1908), (2) Baines {Ethnography of India , 1912)
and (3) Gait ( Census of India, 1911, vol 1 )

Sir Herbert Risley classifies by regions (Bengal,
Orissa, etc ) He divides the Untouchables into Hindus
(50630576) and animists (17,248,151) These totals are
my additions of the separate figures which he gives Per-
haps they form the basis of the 60 million estimates which
we sometimes hear of, but in any case, the figuies are
based on the 1901 Census In the second edition ot
Peoples of India (1915), the author, I believe rightly, omits
the table altogether, though in the meanwhile the census
figures of 1911 had become available The alteration of
provincial boundaries, besides the large increase in popula-
tion in the decade 1901-11, had evidently upset the
calculations

Sir Athelstan Baines bases on the 1901 census, and
excludes Burma, taking the total population of India as
283 millions The Domiciled Untouchables are classified
by castes and occupations His totals are

Field labourers
Leather workers
Scavengers

16. 158.400
15,028,300

3 647 700

34.834.400

But the classification in some cases is very doubtful — eg.,
Namasudras (or Chandals) and Kolis are included under
peasants, though a large part M them are Untouchables
The Aboriginals are given regionally

Central Belt (Kol, Santal, Munda, Oraon, Gond, etc ) 9,229,900

Western Belt (Bhjls) 1,922,300

South Indian hill tribes . 593, 900

Assam and Himalayas 1,765,700

13,511,800

i ; 6 The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration

Here we have a total of 48,346,200, perhaps the origin of
the 50 million estimate, which is the one most frequently
given. But as pointed out above, these figures also are
based upon the 1901 census, and they exclude Burma
(which Sir Herbert Risley includes) with its large abo-
riginal population. Nor is it easy to determine how far
the castes and tribes enumerated by Sir A. Baines are all
untouchable, or include all the Untouchables.

The plan that I have followed in this essay is to take
the list of castes and tribes given in the Report by Sir H.
Gait of the 1911 Census of India , vol. i., part ii.,
pp. 178 ff. y as a basis. From this I have extracted the
Untouchables under the two groups mentioned, Aboriginal
and Domiciled, to the best of my knowledge and informa-
tion. There are sure to be mistakes in detail, but I do not
think that any important bodies have been omitted. It is
more likely that some have been included who are not
really untouchable. The two lists are given alphabetically,
with particulars as to occupation, and an attempt is made to
summarize the most important groups. One has had to use
private judgment in drawing the line between Untouch-
ables and others. For instance, I have not included Dhobis
(washermen) and Kumhars (potters), though, strictly
speaking, their employments are reckoned among the
unclean, because usually they seem to be recognized as
castes. On the other hand, I have included Chamars
(leather-workers), because I believe the majority of them
are socially excluded. These instances and much else will
make it clear to the reader that this claims to be nothing
more than a preliminary study, which may serve as a
starting-point for really accurate and detailed investigation,
both before and after the census which is due in 1921. This
is a field in which the Survey Committee of the Indian
National Missionary Council might do useful work. A
sketch map of India showing the results would be
invaluable.

In dealing with these figures, taken from the 1911

The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration 177

census, it is to be noted that the total population of the
Indian Empire was then reckoned at 315,132,537. Of this
number 12,115,217 lived in Burma, which is a Buddhist
country, and therefore has no, properly speaking, untouch-
able classes, as it has no caste system. Hence, in making
comparisons regarding Domiciled Untouchables, the popula-
tion of India must be reckoned at 303,017,320. But in the
case of aboriginal tribes, Burma has to be included. The
Aboriginals (as shown here) amount to a little over 6 per
cent, of the entire population of the Indian Empire. The
Domiciled are a little less than 10 per cent, of the popula-
tion of India without Burma.

For the benefit of the non-technical reader, I give a
list of the provinces, with populations. It has to be
remembered that “Central Provinces” denotes the area
under direct British rule in that part of India, while
“ Central India” is a group of feudatory states and
their dependencies. The “United Provinces” of Agra
and Oudh were formerly known as the “ North-West
Provinces.”

Provinces

Area in sq miles

Population

1911

1911.

Ajmer Merwara

2,711

501,395

Andamans and Nicobars

3 .M 3

26,459

Assam

53»° 1 5

6,7*3,635

Baluchistan

54,228

414.412

Bengal

78,699

45,483,077

Bihar and Onssa .

83,181

34,490,084

Bombay ( Presidency )

123,059

19,672,642

Burma

230,839

12,115,217

Central Provinces and Berar . .

99 . 8^3

13,9*6,308

Coorg

*.582

174,976

Delhi

557

391,828

Madras . .

142,330

41,405,404

North West Frontier Province

13.418

2,196,933

Panjab

99,232

19 , 974,956

United Provinces of Agra and
Oudh

107,267

47,182,044

Total, Provinces .

1,093,074

244 , 659/370

M

VOL. XVI.

j 78 The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration

States or Agencies

Assam State (Manipur)
Baluchistan {Agency Tracts)
Baroda State
Bengal States
Bihar and Orissa States
Bombay States
Central India Agency
Central Provinces States
Haidarabad State
Kashmir State
Madras States
Mysore State

North West Frontier Province
{Agencies and Tribal Areas )
Panjab States
Rajputana Agency
Sikkim

United Provinces States
1 otal, States and Agencies
Total, India

Area in sq miles.

Population

191 1

1911

8456

346,222

80,410

420,291

8,182

2,032,798

5,393

822,565

28,648

3,945,209

63,864

7,411,675

77,367

9,356,980

3 I » I 74

2, 1 17,002

82,698

I3l374,676

84 43 2

3,158 126

10,549

4,811,841

29,475

5,806,193

25,5°°

1,622,094

36 55i

4,212,794

128 987

10,530,432

2,818

87,920

5,079

832,036

709 583

70,888,854

1,802,657

315,548,224

CniEr Grouis or the Aboriginals
Taking the chief aboriginal tribes we may group them in
(1) Western, (2) Central, (3) Southern, (4) Eastern

Under (1) we have the Bhils and Bhilalas, 1,096,376

In addition to these the census gives

US 675,329 as

Domiciled How far (if at all) these latter

are untouchable

is not clear

The mam group is (2) the Central It comprises

Gonds

*»9 r 7t*S°

Santals

2,138,310

Ho

420,571

kamar

3*4,105

Kol

344,790

Munda

574,434

Oraon

75U983

Mma

639,908

Panika

796,973

8,898,224

In (3) the South we have

Khond

673.346

Kurumban

947,619

1,620,965

The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration 179
In (4) the chief Eastern tribes are in Assam and Burma

Assam

Kachan

231,912

Mech

115,056

Mikir

105,077

Naga

220,034

672,079

Burma

Karen

1,102,695

Shan

996,946

2,099,641

2,771,720

Out of a total of nearly 20 million aborigines the mam
groups mentioned above count for over 13 millions The
rest, as may be seen from the table, are divided into many
small sections

Difficulties oi Grouping

To group these and even the larger sections of the
Aboriginals correctly as to their untouchableness is a
complicated task For instance the Bhilalas above
referred to should probably be counted out, for they are
said to be regarded as a mixed race of Bhil and Rajput
origin , but even here it would be necessary to find out
with care how far this status is accorded to all Bhilalas.
Of the Bhils we read in the Gazetteer of India, vol vm ,
p 1 o 1, " It is not easy to describe a tribe that includts
every stage of civilization, from the wild hunter of the hills
to the orderly and hard-working peasant of the lowlands
A further difficulty arises from the fact that the name
Bhil is often given to half-wild tribes who do not seem to
be true Bhils ”

Yet another difficulty lies in the variety of occupations
which may be comprised under one caste or outcaste
The Namasudras are often lumped as untouchable But
Sir H. Risley writes ( Tribes and Castes of Bengal \
vol. i, p. 188) that they “work at anything as boatmen,
peasants, tradesmen, and artisans,” besides their menial
occupations. This makes the information regarding
occupation only approximate to facts Broadly speaking,

i8o The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration

by “ peasant ” is meant the small owner who cultivates his
own or common land, by “cultivator” the labourer who
may be a tenant but is more generally a regular dependent ,
by “shifting cultivator” the jungle dweller who moves his
tillage from place to place as the land becomes exhausted ,
by ‘ cooly” the regular hired labourer for cultivation or
industry of any kind But the earth-worker cooly may
also be a scavenger or a field labourer.

In the case of Aboriginals the information given in the
reports regarding occupation is remarkably scarce One
would have expected the economic condition of these back-
ward peoples to be of foremost interest to their able and
be nevolent administrators, but, as a matter of fact, a few
jejune notes on livelihood and employment are often
smothered by masses of detail regarding marriage and
funeral customs and animistic observances

Certain tribes of a somewhat higher standing have been
included in this list, because they are designated in the
census tables asammist — eg , the Moger and Mukkuvan of
South India The cult of the Wangars of Nepal is
designated by Risley as “a lax Hinduism, tempered by
survivals of an earlier cult ” This and other tribes stand
on the dividing line between Animism and Hinduism
Only a minority of the ammist tribes are reached by
Christian missionary effort Among the larger ones,
definite impression has been made upon the Santals, the
Kols, the Mundas and Oraons, and the Karens, and to
some extent upon the Bhils and Gonds Among some
smaller tribes, such as the Kharias of Assam and the Todas
of the Nilgiris, effective work has been done It would
seem that the infiltration of Hinduism is more in evidence
among these peoples than the propaganda of Islam, though
this last is not absent

Chief Groups of the Domiciled Untouchables
Among the 30 million of these people the largest groups

are

The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration iBt

11,305,713

846,589

174 218

1,020,807

667,031

4544*7

1 121,458

454,174
842,409
5^,777
2,087,162

3 i 945>5**

626,158
49,201
118,518
3 342,680
700,069

4,836,626

J,93*, °*7
*, 1 35 3 2 9
2 44 S » *95

6,514641

28 744,7 6 7

Less than 3 millions remain divided amo tg the minor
unclean castes The “mass movement” towards Christian-
ity has been most in evidence among the three South
Indian groups and among the Chuhras of the Panjab
Next to them would come the Bhangis of the United
Provinces, the Mahars of Bombay, and the Namasuclras
(erstwhile Chandals) of Bengal A Urge number of
converts have been made from the Chamars, but they form
a small fraction of the whole great community A very
large proportion of the Domiciled Untouchables remain as
virgin soil for missionary and philanthropic effort

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Impenai Gazetteer of India , twenty four vols and Index Clarendon
Press, 1907

Census of India (1911) Especially Vol I, with General Survey and
Statistics Calcutta, 1913

The Peoples of India, by Sir Herbert Risley Second Edition Thacker,
1915 (First Edition, 1908 )

Ethnography of India, by Sir Athelatan Barnes Strassburg, 1912

Special volumes on Tribes and Castes of India Bengal, by Sir H
Risley, 1891 , North IVest Provinces and Oudh , by W Crooke, 1896 ,
Southern India, by E Thurston, 1 909 , Central Provinces , by W E
Russell and Hir 5 L31, 1916

The Af undos and their Country , and The Or aons of Chota Nagpur ,
by Sarat Chandra Roy (Ranchi, 1912 and 1915)

Article on “Caste,” by E H Gait in Encyclopcedta of Religion and
Ethics 1910

Throughout North India Chamar

Panjab Chuhra
Megh

United Provinces Bhangi
Bhar

Bengal Han

Dhanak

Mochi

Namasudra

Bombay Bhil

Bhilala

Dhed

Mahar

Mang

Madras Madiga
Mala
Paraijan

ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF INDIA AND BURMA BEFORE DOMICILED
(Designated in Census Returns as “Animi&ts )

182 The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration

The Untouchables of India and their Enumeration 183

m tvCO W IxQ Tfrr,

n - - 85 O tvO) O' V* fc» 0 O' O' 0 O' f*s - M 01

M tN'D 0 t'.O a O' tv O rt'tMQ ^ 't

Si' ^ n.o « mo CO'S Oo'fJ f"l

« f
« O'

« rv. tv. «

rt

•6

I

O

O

Pi

■5

a§ J a

3 & S'Su » be re ~ h . **i

l^jslllsSS2SslszaZZOfcfcfcKfic2l^wH^>>>>i

A nrtuonty of Bhils and BhlUlas classed under Domiciled Untouchables

The Turkish Question

1 86

wish the British public to disregard the living sentiment
of their Moslem fellow-subjects are wilfully shutting their
eyes to an extremely grave situation that has arisen within
the Empire in the past fifty or sixty years. They are
wilfully trying to delude the people of England to suppose
that this living sentiment is of no significance, that it is
a mere “shadowy terror.”

At the gravest crisis in the war, when doubts and apprehen-
sions had grown up in Moslem minds as to the designs and
intentions of the Allies respecting Turkey, Mr. Lloyd
George, speaking in the name of the British nation and the
Empire as a whole, said “ Nor are we fighting to deprive
Turkey of its capital nor of the rich and renowned lands of
Asia Minor and Thrace, which are predominantly Turkish in
race ” These words, deliberately and solemnly uttered on
January 1 9 j 8, had the effect of allaying the panic which
had arisen among the Moslems, who had lavishly given
their wealth and unstinting help to the British cause , their
doubts and apprehensions were removed. They accepted
the declaration of the Prime Minister as a solemn pledge
given by, and on behalf of, the British Empire that
Constantinople, Thrace, and Turkey Proper would be left
intact and uninterfered with To raise an outcry against
the fulfilment of this pledge after full advantage of it had
been taken by Great Britain, would be regarded by the
Moslem world as the greatest breach of faith. Moslem
soldiers laid down their lives in the cause of England in
the firm belief that the word of England would never
be broken, and if at this juncture, at the demand of a
section of the press and people of England, the pledge is
to be broken, the effect, to my mind, would be disastrous.

I have stated the point of view from which I look at
the question as a British citizen. I think it right to say a
few words regarding Turkey. It is extraordinary that
Englishmen do not see the absurdity of the fulminations
against Islam and the right of the Ottoman Caliph to the
religious headship which his family and his house have held

The Turkish Question

187

for over four centuries The fact remains that the Sunni
world, which includes by far the largest proportion of
Moslems, accepts him as de jure and de facto Imam and
spiritual head Constantinople has been the capital of the
Caliphate and of the Turkish Empire ever since 1453. It
is now covered with Moslem institutions with Moslem
shrines, mosques, mausolea It has become a Moslem
city, and is regarded as a sacred city, sacred by its associa
tions and traditions to the Moslem world It is certainly
not so sacred as Mecca and Medina, but in the eyes of
Islam, from the shores of the Atlantic as far towards the
East as the Pacific, it is loved and venerated next to the
Holy Cities , it is lovingly called Islambol, which is the
name by which it is commonly known This is not a
new word It has existed ever since its capture b)
Muhammcd II and a reference to it will be found in the
well known work of Piofesstr Grosvenor, the American
author

Adrianople is also regarded as a holy city To drive
the Turk from Constantinople and Thrace which is, as
Mr Lloyd George has stated predominantly Turkish in
race would be a degradation to the Caliph and would be
regarded as an insult to Islam Is it to be wondered at
then, that the threat should create immense and vehement
feeling in the Moslem world ? The French, with their
practical common sense realize this It is strange that in
England which holds in her hands the destinies of three
to four times as many Moslems as France does, there
should be such wolent animosity where the feelings of tb<
Kings Moslem subjects are concerned

There is another point The lurks have been called
cruel rulers, and they have been accused of committing
terrible crimes On the other hand the Turkish rulers
gave to the Jews, when they fled from the gibbet and the
stake of Christian Spain a generous asylum They
guaranteed to their non-Moslem subjects the fullest tolera-
tion, and secured them the freest enjoyment of their com-

The Turkish Question

188

munal and religious rights. Muhammad II., who captured
Constantinople, granted them a charter, which has been
renewed time after time. Greeks, Armenians, and Jews
have prospered in their dominions, and have enjoyed the
rights and privileges from a time when the word toleration
was unknown in Europe. Even at the time of Alexander
Pope, the poet, the Roman Catholics in England had to
pay double land tax. The Turkish capitation tax on non-
Moslems was lighter in comparison to the burden of the
revenue on the Turkish Moslems. The Turkish rulers have
ruthlessly suppressed revolutions and risings fostered almost
always from outside, but is there any other nation which
has not been ruthless in repressing rebellion ? What about
Russia ? Fair-minded people must remember that there
are always two sides to every question, and Turkey has
not been allowed a hearing up to this time.

1 89

CONSTANTINOPLE AND ARMENIA
Interview witk H E Boghos Nubar Pasha

We found His Excellency at the Carlton Hotel very much
absorbed in Armenian affairs, as was to be expected But
he proved quite ready to give for the benefit of the readers
of the Asiatic Review, an account of what the interests of
Armenia were, and how these interests could be secured.

When the subject of the Golden Horn was broached he
weighed his words with the utmost care * Unfortunately,
the question of Constantinople has sometimes been con-
nected with that of Armenia But these two questions are
distinct from each other Constantinople concerns the
interests of the Allied Powers Yes, there above all the
European interests are at stake The Powers have had to
weigh the respective merits of the two solutions : whether,
that is to say, the Turks should remain in Constantinople
or otherwise It was not for the Armenians to take up any
position with regard to this question, and we have carefully
avoided doing this

“ And what, your Excellency, are the vital interests of
Armenia

“They may be stated quite briefly To unite in one
republic Erivan with those provinces of what was Turkey
which contained a majority of Armenians by race before
the war That is our aim. And to enable this Armenian
republic to live, we ask for an outlet on the Black Sea,
which is absolutely vital to allow our new state to develop
and prosper. No,” he added, “ I will not give the name
of any particular port I will confine myself to what I
said an outlet on the Black Sea ”

“ And what is your attitude with regard to Cilicia ?

190 Constantinople and Armenia

‘ There we have always accepted gladly the provisions
of the Sykes Picot agreement By that agreement Cilicia
comes under the protection of France That means, as I
understand it that Cilicia will be liberated from the influence
of Turkey, and at last be restored to tranquility In fact,
that has been distinctly promised to us, and that is why
Armenian volunteers fought under French command in the
Syrian campaign, and our aspirations have always been
well understood

“ Do you anticipate any dangers in the north
No , there the position is satisfactory Our good
friends the Georgians have been our neighbours for cen-
turies and our relations are very cordial Besides it is to
our mutual advantage We have a common interest to
withstand the dangers of Bolshevism and Pan Turamamsm
And what would be your policy towards a reformed
and a restored Russia ?

That would depend on the policy they adopted towards
Armenia I do not think the Russians can have any pre-
tensions to Armenia after they have been presented with
the fait accompli recognized by the Peace Conference As
for Persia ” he proceeded there again we can look forward
to an amicable understanding — the Persians retaining their
old Western frontier

1 Has the time passed for an American mandate ?

1 As far as we are concerned, not at all We should
accept it most gladly But it does not rest with us The
point is, are they now willing to do it ? Even to-day we
ask for the mandate of a Power under the League of
Nations That is our demand before the Supreme Council
I do not know whether the American Senate will revise
their decision But there is still hope that they will help in
other ways Perhaps they will be able to find another
formula ”

“ What is your Excellency s view about the Greek claims
in the Pontus region

' I am glad to say that we are on the best of terms with

The Future of the Armenian State 19 1

the Greeks, whose experiences of Turkish misrule bear a
tragic resemblance to ours Trebizond is m any case not
one of the Armenian provinces, and we make no claims
whatever in that district.”

Boghos Nubar Pasha is a veteran, but he has borne his
years of indefatigable labour well His career at the head
of large agricultural and irrigation works will be long
remembered in Egypt, where his father was Prime Minister
at the time of the British occupation And Armenia is
indeed fortunate to have as the spokesman of her policy in
this critical time such an able and experienced statesman,
whose counsel will always be moderation, and to whom
exaggerated claims are anathema

1 HE FUTURE OF 1 HE ARMENIAN STATE
Interziew with the Armenian Patriarch at Constantinople

The Armenian Patriarch, who is responsible for the spiritual
welfare of all the Armenians in Turkey, explained at once
that life had been made intolerable for his fellow countrymen
there “ And the blame must be laid at the door of the
1 urkish regime It is our earnest prayer to be liberated
once and for all The problem of Constantinople has
nothing to do with it For us the Turkish question is
closed once the Armenian State has become recognized

‘ And what of the Kurds ?

“ It must never be forgotten that the Kurds have been
our neighbours for centuries They are herdsmen, who
tend their flocks on the hills. They are illiterate, have
not even an alphabet for their language But they have
been instigated to cruelty from without We respect their
desire for independence , and when they have been freed
from baneful external influences we hope to be in good
neighbourly relationship with them — as of old There is
no reason why it should be otherwise. We are on excellent
terms with the Persians , the Armenians in Tabrir have

1 9 2

The Future of the Armenian State

always been very well treated. The same is the case in
Georgia. There the Armenians are largely the moneyed
class. But the Georgians welcome them ; and, in fact, the
Mayor of Tiflis is usually an Armenian.”

“ And what are the internal problems of the new
Armenian State ?”

“There will be no land question — that is one thing!
The land is owned by the peasants, who are on excellent
terms with the dwellers in the towns. There is no
Bolshevism. Every village has its primary schools, and
secondary education will be immediately taken m hand.
Then the Republic of Erivan is organizing a University.
Besides there are mines — and here I should like you to
say that European financial interests will be much more
effectively safeguarded in an Armenian State than under
the old regime. Can they not see that the civilized
Armenian will have far more requirements under a settled
government, and that concessions granted to Europeans
will thereby become much more valuable '

“ What do you calculate is the present Armenian popu-
lation ?”

“ I can read you out this table

Armenian Provinces .. 100,000 Caucasus

Cilicia 200,000 Syna

Constantinople 150,000 Persia

Smyrna .. . 100,000 Envan

300.000

100.000
20,000

2 , 000,000

550,000 2,420,000

“ And you look forward to a prosperous future
“ We shall need help at first. Our rich country has
been brought to the verge of starvation. We stand in
need of the first necessities of life. But our people are
hard-working and intelligent, and these qualities reap their
assured reward under good government.”

193

CORRESPONDENCE

“a pair hearing and no favour

THE FUTURE OF TURKEY
Sir,

Knowing the interest which you take in the settle
ment of the Turkish Question, I hope that you will grant
me the hospitality of your columns to refer to several points
which, so far, do not seem to have received the attention
which they deserve

The decision taken by the Supreme Council, and the
policy supported by Mr Lloyd George in the House of
Commons on February 26, in regard to the future of
Constantinople are perfectly justifiable for several distinct
reasons

1 The British Government was absolutely pledged by
the words used by the Premier, who said in his address to
Trades Union delegates on January 5 1918 “Nor are
we fighting to deprive Turkey of its capital or of the
rich and renowned lands of Asia Minor and Thrace, which
are predominantly Turkish in race. We do not

challenge the maintenance of the Turkish Empire in the
homelands of the Turkish race with its capital at Con-
stantinople. These words were bound to be considered
as a pledge and not a mere inducement to Turkey to go
out of the war, and they stand out as unique in their
importance because

(a) They constituted, not an answer to a question m
Parliament or a casual statement, but the) formed part
of a definite declaration of war aims — a declaration made
when a statement of policy was widely demanded by public
opinion throughout the British Empire

1 94 Correspondence

(b) The Prime Minister said at the time that “although
the Government are alone responsible for the actual
language I propose using, there is a national agreement
as to the character and purpose of our war aims and peace
conditions, and he claimed to be “speaking not merely
the mind of the Government, but of the nation and of the
Empire as a whole

(c) Whilst the above-quoted statement of policy preceded
President Wilsons address to Congress of January 8, 1918
it formed the counterpart of that address, which contained
the ‘ Fourteen Points ’ The twelfth of these “ Points
included a statement that ‘ The Turkish portions of the
present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure
sovereignty ’

(d) The armistices with Turkey and with the other
enemy countries were concluded on the basis of these
declarations by the President of the United States and
by the British Premier, and Mr Lloyd George was
returned to power when the terms of the various armistices
were already known

2 The 1 urks constitute the largest element in the
population of Constantinople

3 It would undoubtedly have been resented by our
fellow-subjects — the people of India — vast numbers of
whom have fought loyally for the Allied cause and for
the cause of freedom, had the Turks been driven from
Constantinople and had the British pledges upon this
subject been broken For this reason alone, and because
it is our primary duty to work for British interests rather
than for those of any other people or country, it seems that
the policy adopted is justifiable and necessary

4 The setting-up of an international regime to govern
Constantinople would have been far more difficult than the
establishment of control of the Straits or even of the bands
of territory by which they are bordered

5 The banishment of the Ottoman Government to
Broussa, Konia, or Angora, would have decreased the

Correspondence 195

opportunity for Turkish intercourse with Western civiliza-
tion.

6. The control of the Turkish Government can be made
much more real on the Bosphorus than were that Govern-
ment to have its seat in a city located lar from the sea, and
therefore where the existence of the international fleet in the
Sea of Marmora would and could have no direct influence.

I think that the opponents of the Turkish retention of
Constantinople have made a great mistake in confusing
this issue with their advocacy of the cause of the non-
Turks especially the Christians, of Asia Minor. Thus,
whilst Constantinople constitutes the piece cie resistance
of the Eastern Question so far as Europe be concerned,
the futuie distribution and government of Asia Minor are,
in fact, far more important to the various subject-races
of Turkey. There must be an Armenia — an Armenia
sufficiently large and strong to enable it to live, to develop,
and to accommodate, not only the actual inhabitants of the
areas concerned, but also those who may desire to immigrate
into them from other parts of the present Ottoman Empire
or elsewhere in the world. On the other hand, so far as
the remainder of Anatolia be concerned, it would seem
vastly preferable to leave all this territory to Turkey, among
many other reasons because this would avoid the establish-
ment of two rivals — Italy and Greece — as neighbours in
Asia, and because, whatever may be the advantages possibly
to be gained by the latter country at Smyrna, these ad-
vantages will be far more than counterbalanced by the
creation of a new Cretan Question — a question which must
react against the interests of the large number of Hellenes,
who will in any case, and of necessity, remain domiciled
in territories belonging to Turkey.

Yoms faithfully,

H. Charles Woods.

February 28, 1920.

196

THE NEAR EASTERN CHAOS

By Lieut -Colonel A C Yate

There is no question at this moment more prominently
before the world’s mind than the future of the Turkish
Empire We have seen it discussed from every conceivable
point of view, and especially from the point of view of the
Indian Moslem community, generally estimated at seventy
millions — the bulk of whom, as some discerning cyme
lemarked, know little and care less about the subject We
Christians, professed or otherwise, in our ignorance are just
aware that the great Moslem sect is the Sunni, and the
next to that the Shi ’a The former embraces for the most
part the Turk, Afghan, Indian and African, and the
latter the Persian. Two of His Majesty s Indian sub-
jects, His Highness the Agha Khan and the Right Hon
Syed Ameer All, have especially stood forward as the
protagonists of the Indian Moslem in his sympathy with
the Sultan of Rum and his claim to the Caliphate It is
difficult for us Christians to get into the back of the minds
of these Moslems General Tyrrell acutely remarked that
he presumed that the sympathy of the Indian Moslem with
the Sultan and his Caliphate was due to the fact that the
Indian had the good fortune never to have come under
Turkish misrule Wc have witnessed marvellous specimens
during this war of diplomatic ineptitude, such as the gift of
Constantinople and the Straits to Russia, and of Cyprus to
Greece — an ineptitude that would almost seem to justify
the apotheosis of Sir Auckland Geddes at the expense of all
the brain power of our orthodox diplomats, were it not that
it was the Asquith Cabinet and not the Diplomatic Service
that was responsible for those colossal blunders What we

The Near Eastern Chaos

197

are now doomed to witness is the Supreme Council revoking
its judgment on the Turk, while Armenia m vain appeals
for protection. It is a deplorable spectacle, alike unworthy
of the British nation as the greatest and most successful of
all the peoples who have explored and assimilated the East ,
of France, which from the sixteenth century onward had
sought to dominate the Levant, and under Napoleon, had
aspired to the acquisition of Constantinople and the invasion
of India , and of the United States of America, which, having
for a century maintained a great missionary and educational
service in Asia Minor and Western Persia, and founded
famous colleges at Stamboul and Beyrout lack the mspira
tion and spirit to undertake the protection of the Christian
communities which lie between the devil and the deep sea
of the Turco Persian borders take they the form of Sunni
or Shi a The Allied administration of this territory, where
again “three Empires meet,’ viz, Turkey Persia and
what was Russia, has been feeble in the extreme This can
probably be traced to that lack of unit} which is so apt to
be the radical weakness of an allnnce and in the post war
alliance the potentially strongest and yet the intrinsically
weakest factor has been the United States of America
When the Central Asian Society drew up its programme for
the session 1919-20,11 was obvious that the Armenian ques
tion demanded attention To that end Boghos Nubar Pasha
the head of the Armenian delegation in Paris, was approached
and invited to nominate an Armenian competent to lay their
case before the Society This His Excellency was so good
as to do, and on December 17, 3919 at the rooms of the
Royal Society, Burlington House, Mr Funduklian delivered
an address which, whether viewed as a rdsumd of Armenian
history or an exposition of Armenian sufferings, was a
masterly performance In the absence of Lord Carnock,
owing to indisposition, the chair was ably taken by Col Sir
Thomas Holdich, ex- President of the Royal Geographical
Society, and to the pertinence of his comments in the
discussion were added those of Lord Lamington, Brigadier-

The Near Eastern Chaos

198

General Sir P. M. Sykes, Mr. J, A. Malcolm, President of
the Armenian Association, and Mr. Athelstan Riley. Did
space admit, I would gladly reproduce here what was said
on that occasion. As far as I had opportunity of judging
the daily and weekly Press paid no more attention to the
opinions of these experts than they did a month later when,
in the same place and before the same Society, Mr.
Roland Michell, lor thirty years Commissioner of Limasol,
stated the case for the retention of Cyprus, and in that was
supported in the most emphatic language by two ex- High
Commissioners of Cyprus, Sir W, F. Haynes Smith and
Sir Charles King-Harman, and by Sir William Mitchell
Ramsay. It is indeed a fortunate thing in these days when
a good cause can look for support to some more broadly-
minded advocacy than that which the average editorial
columns of to-day afford. I am told that the retention by
Britain of Cyprus is settled, and I am further told that the
French Government has stipulated that Cyprus shall not be
surrendered by Britain to Greece or anyone else, until
France has been consulted. I11 view cf the French interest
at stake in Syria and Cilicia, this is perfectly reasonable.

Before I quit the subject of Armenia, let me invite those
who take a real interest in its past history to refer to volume
vi., pp. 89-91, of Sismondi’s “ Histoire des Republiques
Italiennes.” The mercantile importance of Armenia in
the Middle Ages is there duly indicated, and what is more
curious, the identity in faith and doctrine of its Church with
that of Rome asserted, and the assertion confirmed in the
following note : “ L’Eglise d’Armenie avait ete reunie a
l’^glise catholiqueen 1145, 1190, and 1247.” I do not by this
mean to contend that there is any virtue in this rapproche-
ment between Etchimiazin and Rome. It would seem that
the Armenian Church, even when most threatened by the
sword of Islam, never acknowledged the Papal supremacy.
Christianity to my thinking stands on its own base, regard-
less of sect.

The American Church can speak for the American nation.

The Near Eastern Chaos

199

though the White House and the Senate are gagged
When the political tie between the two great sections of
the Anglo-Saxon race is paralyzed by party dissensions or
presidential aspirations, the ecclesiastical bond draws the
twain into closer alliance, and extends their united sym
pathy both to the Greek and the Armenian Churches, and
if to the Churches, then also to the peoples We trust that
this united effort will prevail How can the Supreme
Council maintain the Turk at Constantinople in the face of
the renewed massacres in Cilicia ? But, as the Rev Harold
Buxton so clearly states in The Times of March 3, the
great defaulter in this case i«s the United States of America
1 quote the concluding paragraph of his most telling report,
is an eye-witness of what has happened at and around
Amtab, Marash and Adana “ The question remains as to
who is responsible for the new betrayal of the Armenians
It is natural enough to blame the French and they bear
their full share of the responsibility But it was from across
the Atlantic that we lonkf d f nr a mandatory power for
Armenia if not for Asia Minor The President gave us
ample reasons to count on an American mandate It was
and is the only true solution Without it, the same horrors
will be repeated and thousands of women and children will
die a death of torture and agony I maintain that no settle-
ment of Turkey can be satisfactory without America m it
Can nothing be done even at this eleventh hour to stir
America ? Can she sit and watch the horrors unmoved ?
Such an appeal ought to move a heart of stone

With the Turk we have erred as with the German We
took no hostages, and when we did take them then incom-
petent warders let them escape to Azerbaijan Quite irre
spective of official reports we have had private evidence of
the Turkish brutality to our Kut prisoners When Captain
Keeling whose romantic narrative of escape from Kastamum
had been read before both the Royal Geographical and the
Central Asian Societies, told us what he witnessed on the
march from Kut into Asia Minor, Major-General Sir Charles

200

The Near Eastern Chaos

Melliss confirmed his statements in the most emphatic
language (Incidentally I may add that Captain Keeling, in
addressing the Central Asian Society, stated that the asser-
tion of Truth that Sir Charles Townshend could have
fought his way out of Kut through the Turkish lines was
an absolute and ignorant lie ) For that brutality, the very
thought of which makes the heart sick, no penalty has been
exacted, and now all those who know anything of the Middle
East know that we are face to face with a situation in which
lack of unity and great diversity of interest are very grave
sources of weakness Let us glance for a moment at the
rival ambitions that rack Asia Minor, The Caucasus, Meso-
potamia, Syria, Kurdistan, and Arabia at this moment We
have Italian and Greek, Turk, Tartar, Georgian and
Armenian, Kurd and Nestorian, Arab and Frenchman,
Denikin, with his face to the Bolshevist and behind his
back the hostile Moslem, and Mustapha Kamal dominating
all eastern Asia Minor, each and all of these fighting for
his own hand, and the European Christian Powers not in
unison to constrain or restrain the Asiatic, but rivals of one
another There is nothing new in that In the sternest
days of the Crusades neither prelate nor prince of Europe
could put faith in his neighbour, and after the fall of Con-
stantinople in 1453, the Sultan of Rum was as often as not
allied with one Prince of Christendom against the other.

The chaos which prevails in parts of Europe and Asia is
of that type which, so to speak, can only shake and shape
itself into order We must frankly admit that the task
imposed upon the Supreme Council has been one which
transcends the ordinary standard of human provision and
organization To see this we have but to concentrate our
minds on events since the Armistice, and then add a heavy
percentage for the difficulties and drawbacks of the American
defection and the agitation of the Indian Moslem.

201

THE CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY REPORT
By J D Anderson

It is with no little diffidence and reluctance that I comply,
as best I can, with our Editor’s request that I should write
a few words on the subject of the Report — it occupies five
bulky volumes — of the Commission on the University of
Calcutta It is a Report which should be read by all who
are interested in university education in all parts of the
Empire It has been very ably analyzed and discussed in
The Times Educational Supplement by a writer who is
evidently intimately acquainted with Indian educational
problems I doubt if I can add anything of interest or
value to what is there set down Moreover since I was
honoured (and a little frightened! by having this task allotted
to me, the Educational Department of the Government of
India has issued a Resolution explaining how the Report
presents itself to the minds of the responsible authorities at
Delhi, and how far they propose to give effect to the
recommendations of the Commission in the legislative
action which they intend to take However, it is possible
that not all readers of the Asiatic Review will see the
Resolution m question, and so I may be excused if I
venture to explain, to the best of my ability, what has
been found to be lacking in the methods of university
teaching in Calcutta, and how it is proposed to provide
a tentative remedy

In the first place may I venture to say that critics of the
Report have been a little too ready to assume that there is
something very rotten in the state of higher education in
Bengal. If we are to judge the Calcutta University by its
fruits, by the best results of its teaching, we need not
despair. Educated Bengalis have not done badly in the
world wide struggle for distinction A Bengali was the first
to enter the Indian Civil Service , another was the first to

VOL XVI.

o

202 The Calcutta University Report

attain to the responsible post of a Commissioner of a Divi-
sion , a third was the first selected to be Chief Secretary of
another province than his own, a post requiring much tact,
discretion, and knowledge of men Another was the first
Indian to be made a member of His Majesty’s Privy Council,
and we all rejoice that Lord Sinha’s services “ to his king
and country” (to use his own words) were rewarded by
elevation to the peerage We all hope that a famous Bengali
man of science may shortly be elected to the coveted honour
of Fellowship of the Royal Society I might multiply other
instances of distinguished success in academical or political
life I must at least, mention the names of Sir Asutosh
Mukerjee lately Vice-Chancellor of the university and
author or instigator of many interesting additions to its
curriculum , of Pandit Hara Prasad Sastri and among
juniors such already distinguished scholars as Mr Suniti
Kumar Chatterjee, Mr Kiran Chandra Mnkherjee Mr
Jnanendramohan Das, and many others A university that
can boast such graduates as these has not wholly failed in
the promotion of sound learning

Again though no one can be more conscious than I of the
drawbacks of imparting instruction in a foreign language,
let us at once admit that the teaching of English has had
wonderful, and not altogether expected results in the evolu
tion of Bengali literature In Europe we are familiar with
the influence which foreign literatures exercise over the
growth of indigenous literary expression In Bengal there
has been no mere aping of English style But the quick
wits and vivid imaginations of Bengali writers have seized
with avidity on the various forms of literary art presented
to them by English poets novelists essayists, dramatists
Not only men but women also some of the latter graduates
of Calcutta, have written books, which manifestly owe their
matter or their manner to what has been written by English
men or English women Let me repeat that there has been
no mere imitation In almost every case there is an in-
dividual style, and a style which is unmistakably Bengali

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The Calcutta University Report

Everyone, even here, recognizes the characteristic genius
of a Tagore But there are others also One of the most
remarkable novelists now living is Mr Sarat Chandra
Chatterjee, whose gifts of humour and pathos are not only
his own, but are part of his national heredity What he
has learned from English is simply a new vehicle of self-
expression, the novel, and no one who has read his ad-
mirable tales will deny that he has bettered the lesson I
will not labour my point f merely wish to assert, very
earnestly, that, so far as the elite is concerned, Calcutta has
been justified by the literary exploits of her children She
may well be proud of them

But that, of course, is not to say that she could not, and
should not, have done better But here again we must
discriminate and not be hasty to condemn There have
been two impediments One, a necessary defect at the
beginning, was too stringent control by the Government.
The university was professedly and of set purpose an
imitation of Western models, and specifically of the great
University of London Its teachers and professors and
governing body were in 1857, the date of its foundation
and for many yeais later, without practical experience of
the system they were set to copy The other limitation
was that of expense Calcutta is still one of the cheapest
universities in the world Where this means a deficienc)
(as it too often does) of libraries, laboratories, and other
essential aids to learning, no defence is possible But for
frugality and simplicity, there is something to be said
for an Eastern climate Even the now condemned
system of living in messes and lodgings (which, after
all, is the system still followed by the University of
Paris, venerable mother of our own Oxford and Cambridge)
had its advantages, as any reader of modern Bengali novels
may see for himself Some day soon, I am told, we shall
all be reading Tagores “ Naukd Dubi ” in a translation
Read it, and you will see that a Calcutta undergraduate's
life in “ digs ” is not without its agreeable humours and
compensations

204

The Calcutta University Report

Yet, when all is said, the method of teaching in Calcutta
had glaring imperfections, frankly admitted by all, not least
by the most grateful aluntm of the largest university in the
empire, and (perhaps excepting one or two American
universities) in the world. It was too large It supplied
higher education to a population roughly the same as that
of the United Kingdom It had, oddly enough, almost
exactly the same number of undergraduates, some 26,000,
as have all our universities put together But there were,
naturally many differences The proportion of women
students was, of course small That was a defect which
only time could remedy and is rapidly remedying But the
majority of the students were of the three great literary
castes — Brahmans, Vaidyas, and Kayasthas Not only
were the lower, the indigenous castes, Namasadras and
others, grievously lacking but the Mahommedans, who in
Bengal are more than half the population, were only present
in small numbers The number of undergraduates was not
only ten times as great in proportion to the literate popula-
tion as in the United Kingdom but it was greater still in
proportion tothe three great casteswhich almost monopolized
higher education Now none of these castes is, as a whole,
very wealthy and their sons were compelled to make their
university education a stepping-stone to earning their liveli-
hood Here again the social and economical state of the
country made it difficult for Calcutta students to take up
technical training for professions, learned or other The
law, as we know, attracted many Bengal is a litigious
land, and Bengalis are acute and learned lawyers Physic
and surgery attracted a few, but, save in Government service,
medicine has not, till lately, had many prizes, unless in one
or two of the larger towns, among a population which was
content to accept the traditional and empirical art of head-
ing as practised by kavirajes and even ignorant impostors.
That, after all, is a stage from which we have not wholly
emerged ourselves. Over 22,000 out of a total of 26,000
followed purely literary courses as contentedly as our own

205

The Calcutta University Report

fathers took Littera humantores or the Classical Tripos in
our own universities These, we are told, correctly enough,
“ do not fit them for any but administrative, clerical, teaching,
and (indirectly) legal careers " The economic state of the
country was largely to blame for this But that economic
state is rapidly being altered, and, moreover, the outturn of
merely literary students was growing more than could be
absorbed by the limited professions of the country

Worse, however, remains to be told Admission to the
university was regulated by a portentous matriculation
examination, the largest and probably the worst examina-
tion of its kind in the world It dealt with no less than
16,000 candidates every year, supplied by 700 high schools,
whose whole purpose was to cram boys for this examination
From time to time attempts were made to raise its
standard and widen its subject, or at least to mark candi-
dates so as to ensure some sort of fitness for university
instruction The result, naturally enough was parental
cries of dismay, newspaper agitation social pressure appeals
to a paternal and good natured government Even men
who could see the evil of the system disliked the remedies
applied and we must admit that, so applied, at short notice
and perhaps with some appearance of irresponsibility, they
gave some just cause for complaint Imagine yourself
in the place of a Bengali father of small means who had
put himself to great expense in sending his boy to the best
school out of the 700 available, and you will sympathize
rather than condemn

But there could be but one result Thousands of lads,
generally about eighteen years old, were admitted when
they were still quite unfitted for higher education Hence
the first two years of the undergraduate’s life were spent m
preparing for the “ intermediate examination,’ which was,
in fact, the true matriculation, since the two years were spent
in learning or relearning what ought to have been properly
imparted at school. The examination itself was terribly
destructive and got rid of half the total number. They

206 rhe Calcutta University Report

were not wholly disappointed, it was true, since even per-
mission to study for the intermediate could be made the
door to the humbler forms of clerical employment India
is (or was) a frugal land, and many an honest gentleman
performs tasks for a pittance which his like would scorn in
Europe But the schools became cramming shops for the
matriculation, and the colleges of which the university is
composed, lectured and crammed for the intermediate
examination and that in subjects which demanded a retentive
memory rather than an ingenious and healthily developed
intelligence The university as such, confined itself to
examining undergraduates belonging to the affiliated colleges
which supplied its examiners It only taught graduates, in
what we may call post-graduate courses

But the colleges, again, were not as our colleges at
Oxford and Cambridge They were, in fact, exaggerated,
enormous day schools without any of the facilities for games
or instruction which our great day schools supply They
had not any adequate libraries and some pathetically
amusing examples are given of the kind of rubbish which
found its way to their shelves They were, as the Com-
mission says somewhere, “ barracks of lecture rooms ’
The same might, perhaps, be said (if we omit mention of
libraries and laboratories) of the Sorbonne But the
Sorbonne supplies the finest and most stimulating lectures
in the world, given by men to whom lecturing and exposition
are a fine art, to be practised with sedulous devotion The
lectures in Calcutta were, frankly, cram lectures, intended to
enable students to pass examinations rather than to evoke
their latent love of learning That with the Study of text-
books (largely learned by rote) was the sort of training the
ordinary undergraduate got Think of the admirable
material that must have been wasted, when you consider
the performances of those whose natural talent and love of
learning prompted them to supplement such arid nutriment
by private reading and the friendly aid of harassed and
overworked teachers. Tutors there were none Hostels
were few and ill found.

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The Calcutta University Report

The colleges were of different sorts. Some, such as the
famous Presidency College, with its 1,036 students, were
Government institutions. Some, such as the Scottish
Churches Colleges, were maintained by missionary socie-
ties. Others, of more modern origin, were supported by
private liberality, or, more commonly, as a commercial
speculation. Of its kind, the teaching was not wholly
bad. But over them all was the university to which they
were affiliated, and the whole education of Bengal was
under the dead hand of a stereotyped form of literary
examination Besides the colleges in Calcutta itself, there
were the country colleges at Dacca and elsewhere, similarly
employed and at least as badly handicapped by want of
equipment and books Throughout the teachers, lecturers,
professors were few, badly paid, and, even in frugal Bengal,
correspondingly wanting in that social consideration which
is the teacher s right in all civilized countries

Dacca is now about to possess its own university, and
Bihar has its own These will be what we are to call,
it seems, “unitary universities, 3 possessing no subsidiary
colleges. Further than this, neither the Commission nor
the Government is prepared to go at present in the direc
tion of new universities But both see the absolute necessity
of getting rid of the intermediate stage of education This
might have been done by insisting on a higher standard of
education in the 700 schools, and by altering the matricu-
lation education But to handle the reform of 700
schools at once, to provide equipment and teachers for
them all, is a task to frighten any Commission, not to say
any Government with a pocket which has a limit in size.

The Commission has invented a device, which has been
accepted and acted on by the Government, and this, indeed,
the Commission calls “the very pivot of our whole scheme
of reform ” They propose to create a new institution, to be
called “the intermediate college 3 This will not only render
it unnecessary to make too drastic a change in the 700
schools, but will supply a valuable means of disposing of

208 The Calcutta University Report

those colleges, metropolitan or other, which are not fitted
to form part of the reformed university. This intermediate
college will admit boys of sixteen or older, who have passed
the “high school examinations,” an amended version of the
old matriculation examination. It will supply a course of
two years to its students, who, if they pass a new “ inter-
mediate college examination,” will then go on to the
university proper. Sometimes these new intermediate
colleges will be, in fact, the upper classes of high schools.
Elsewhere they will be separate colleges, and, let us hope,
the foci of future provincial universities. Assam and
Rajshahi and Chittagong ought soon to have their own
universities. Chittagong especially, with its nobly situated
madrassaand its large and prosperous high school, has long
been marked out as a future university town, standing as it
does where Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism meet, to say
nothing of the large population of Portuguese Roman
Catholics.

When these changes are effected, Calcutta will still be as
great in point of numbers as Oxford and Cambridge put
together, and will still possess at least 6,000 pupils. The
Government resolution above quoted evidently aims at
making the colleges of which it will be composed into
something like the resident colleges with which we are
familiar. There will be three different classes of colleges.
The “ incorporated ” college will be, in fact, a department
of the university, with its own buildings, financed by the
university, and dealing with some particular subject, such
as law or science. Then there will be the “ constituent
college,” a fully admitted member of the university, and,
thirdly, the “ temporarily affiliated college,” taken experi-
mentally and destined, in case of failure to come up to the
new requirements, to be relegated to the class of “ inter-
mediate college,” which is, in fact, an addition (perhaps not
a wholly happy, if necessary, addition) to either Western
or Eastern systems of education. As to the provincial
colleges, it seems likely that they will either in due course

The Calcutta University Report 209

become provincial universities, or will fall to the status of
intermediate colleges.

Perhaps the most important part of the Government Bill
to deal with the University of Calcutta is that which re-
moves it from the direct supervision of the supreme
Government of India to that of the Bengal Government
This follows naturally enough on the removal of the capital
to Delhi But it comes also at an opportune time when
His Excellency Lord Ronaldshay is Governor of Bengal
It is well known that his Lordship is an expert in educa-
tion, and has taken a deep and personal interest in the
educational problems of the province over which he pre-
sides He will make, as all will admit an admirably com-
petent and sympathetic Chancellor Under him will be,
for the first time a whole-time and adequately salaried
Vice-Chancellor Of other proposed changes I have not
left myself room to speak, but those who are interested in
the subject will most conveniently read of them in the Bill
now being drafted, when it becomes law

I hope I have said enough to show how interesting a
departure in education the Commission has inaugurated
Let me add that we must all hope that Calcutta will soon
be able to supply ail the educational needs of the province
It is good that the educational elite of Bengal should come
to Europe for postgraduate study, just as we may hope that
Calcutta may, before long, provide courses of learning for
our own young Orientalists whether trained at the older
universities or at the new School of Oriental Studies, which
has made so admirable a beginning under Sir E Denison
Ross Already, under the fostering care of the venerable
Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, some beginning has been made in
this direction There is no need, at this time of day, to
defend the system of English education in India It has
given its proofs But it must be admitted that in matters
of Oriental learning, and especially in the study of the
modern languages of India, the Indian universities have
failed to supply means of study to thetr own cEddien and
especially to foreigners. In these branches of learning they

210

The Calcutta University Report

should be (as they admittedly are not at present) pre-
eminent, and should draw students from Berlin, Paris, and
London. Some beginning has already been made, and the
Calcutta University Press is about to publish chrestomathies
of Prakrit and various modern languages, which will be
received with gratitude and delight by Indianists all over
the world.

I am painfully aware that this is a very brief and in-
effectual summary of one of the greatest educational experi-
ments of our time. I have had to omit much that is of
importance and interest — as, for instance, the carefully pre-
pared schemes for the better payment and instruction of
the teaching staff, and the recruiting of the European
agency that will still be necessary. Let us hope that some
of our best teachers will welcome this opportunity for
serving the Empire by helping to educate young Bengal.
They will never regret the choice. Nowhere in the world
will they meet more intelligent and lovable pupils, if they
know how to win their affection and regard. Bengal, like
the rest of India, is greatly changed. But the old tradi-
tional relations between guru and s'isya still survive, and
anyone who has taught young Bengalis of either sex will
agree with me in saying that better, quicker, or more
studious learners do not exist in any country than in Bengal.
English teachers in Bengal can follow the example of one
of the greatest and most inspiring members of their tribe,
the late Professor E. B. Cowell, and learn while they teach.
If he had one fault as a teacher of Sanskrit, it has been
said, it was that he pronounced the classical language of
India as his own teachers, the pandits of Bengal, pronounce
it. That, to me at least, seems no defect, since it made the
language of the Ramayana and Mahabharata a living
tongue to him. Where he, the greatest Sanskritist of his
day in England, learned, others may learn too, and it is
heartily to be hoped that Calcutta, with the help of adjacent
Navadwip, one of the most ancient seats of Sanskrit
learning in India, may become a world-centre of Oriental
scholarship.

21 I

THE INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT*

By John Pollen, cil

Ovfr India, the most conservative country in the wide wide
world, Britain has determined to introduce and gradually
establish a democratic system of government on Western
lines. She has rejected without consideration the sugges-
tion that it would be better to proceed on Eastern lines, by
restoring ‘ India to the descendants of her chiefs and
kmgs, pledging them to set up Indian parliaments and to
reign as limited monarchs under British suzerainty , and,
instead of this, she aims at handing over the direction of
domestic affairs throughout a vast population of various
races following various religions and speaking many
tongues, to parliaments springing from and representative
of all classes This is a stupendous undertaking, and needs
the cordial co operation of Briton and Indian in a common
purpose to render it a success But if it can be accom-
plished successfully, it may result in United India s be-
coming a great prosperous, and well governed, self-
governed country loyal to the British Crown and capable
of rendering far reaching services to all humanity

Every one who wishes India well and desires to see her
prosper and progress must hope that to the King-Emperor,
and his people and servants, Indian and British, may be
granted grace and strength in close co-operauon to accom-
plish the mighty task now definitely set before them

But the difficulties m the path have to be faced fairly and
squarely , pitfalls have to be skilfully avoided and obstacles
courageously overcome What these difficulties, dangers,

* ‘ A History of the Indian Nationalist Movement, by Sir Verney
Lovett, k c s i London John Murray, Albemarle Street, W 1920

212

The Indian National Movement

and pitfalls are Sir Verney Lovett has set forth without
bitterness and in a spirit of true brotherhood and deter-
mined co-operation in his “ History of the Indian National
Movement.”

He has extenuated nothing — nor has he set down aught
in malice — but has told the story of the rise of Indian
Nationalism as a plain unvarnished tale.

However rapid the spread of this Nationalism may have
been, he points out that Hindu society is still divided into
castes and sub-castes to a great extent rigidly separated
from one another by customary occupations and social
status, and that, with very few exceptions, these castes
neither intermarry nor eat together ; that there are still in
India many millions of comparatively ignorant cultivators
and labourers who carry on most of the work of the country ;
and that, as the Honourable Mr. Muhammed Ali Jinnah has
recently declared, “ India is still a vast continent inhabited
by 315 millions of people, sprung from various racial stocks,
professing a variety of religious creeds and in various stages
of intellectual and moral growth.”

And in the administration of such a country as this, Mr.
Jinnah admits, there stands out first and foremost the great
fact that British rule in India with its Western character
and standards of administration, “ while retaining absolute
power of initiative, direction, and decision, has maintained
for many decades unbroken peace and order in the land,
administered even-handed justice, brought the Indian mind,
through a widespread system of Western education, into
contact with the thoughts and ideals of the West, and thus
led to the birth of a great and living movement for the in-
tellectual and moral regeneration of the people”; while Mr.
Mazumdar, for the Congress, further admits that the Govern-
ment of the Crown, “ actuated by its benevolent intentions,
introduced, by slow degrees, various reforms and changes
which gradually broadened and liberalized the administra-
tion and restored peace and order throughout the country,”
and finally succeeded in establishing “ a form of adminis-

The Indian National Movement 213

Lfation which in its integrity and purity could well vie with
that of any other civilized country m the world, while the
security of life and property which it conferred was, until
lately, a boon of which any people might be justly proud

These are deliberate public admissions, and not merely
‘ conventional phrases about the blessings of British rule ’

These latter-day Congress utterances merely accentuate
and confirm the declaration of Mr Subramania Aiyar
who, in speaking to the first resolution of the first Indian
National Congress in 1885, declared that 11 by a merciful
dispensation of providence India, which was for centuries
the victim of external aggression and plunder, of internal
civil wars and general confusion, has been brought under
the dominion of the great British Power The rule of

Great Britain has, on the whole, been better in its results
and direction than any foimer rule Without descanting at
length upon the benefits of that rule, I can summarize them
in one remarkable fact — that for the first time m the history
of the Indian population there is to be beheld the pheno-
menon of national unit) among them of a sense of national
existence ” This was the declared opinion of this re-
presentative of Madras in his robust manhood, although in
his old age, he allowed himself to write to President Wilson
denouncing British misrule and oppression in India, and
declaring that “ officials of an alien nation, speaking a
foreign tongue force their will upon us they grant them-
selves exorbitant salaries and large allowances they refuse
us education , they sap us of our wealth , they impose
crushing taxes without our consent they cast thousands of
our peoples into prisons for uttering patriotic sentiments —
prisons so filthy that the inmates die from loathsome
diseases "

This letter stands out in strange contrast, not only with
this writer’s own declarations at the first Congress, but with
those of Dadabhai Naoroji (the founder of the East India
Association, and the first Indian member of the British
Parliament), who presided over the second Indian National

214 The Indian National Movement

Conference in 1886 Dilating on the blessings of British
rule, Mr Dadabhai Naoroji said

“ Let us speak out like men and proclaim that we are
loyal to the backbone , that we understand the benefits
British rule has conferred on us the education that has
been given to us the new light that has been poured on
us, turning us from darkness into light teaching the new
lesson that kings are made for the people, not peoples for
the kings , and this lesson we have learned amidst the
darkness of Asiatic despotism only by the light of free
English civilization This, like the declaration of the
Maharajah of Ulwar at the Delhi War Conference ‘that
Britain has wished India well and has guided her destinies
for 160 years, is a true saying, and it is true, as Sir
Verney Lovett maintains that Britain s sons m India aided
by Indians have established and maintained order, have
dealt with obstacles have taken risks, and have worked in
defatigably for progress ' Necessity has trained them to
consider what is really practicable in the interests of all
communities and if their point of view were better under
stood we should hear less of the doctrine that unlike
Britons at home, who are amiable philanthropists Britons
in India are specious oppressors Sir Verne> Lovetts
History of the Indian National Movement was in the
press before the India Bill became law, so he could not
deal with the latter in its final stage, but he hopes that the
bitterness for which some circumstances are working may
pass, and that His Majesty’s appeal will stimulate active
perception of the public good Never he declares has the
message been clearer that the interests of Britain and
India are essentially the same
From the recent utterances of Mrs Besant in India
with regard to the Government of India Act, and from the
new attitude she and Mr Jinnah have taken up towards
the Extremists, it would almost seem that Sir Verney s
hopes may be realized, and it is clear that Mr Surendra Nath
Bannerjea at any rate, is determined to do his best to allay

The Indian National Movement 215

tne bitterness and, at the same time, to prevent the re-
currence of the pain and humiliation which Mr Romesh
Chandra Datt felt as he stood among representatives of
free and advancing nations of the earth rejoicing in their
national greatness, and realized that he alone, as an Indian,
had no place among them.

Addressing the Rotary Club in Calcutta on January 31,
1920, Mr Surendra Nath Bannerjea said that the Indian
Moderate party believed that the connection of England
with India was a Divine dispensation ordained for the
holiest and highest of ends, that India would never attain
to the full height of her stature, or take her place amongst
the nations of the earth, and fulfil her allotted portion
in the evolution of humanity except by and through her
association with the freest Empn e the zoorld has ever seen
He therefore appealed to representatn es of the European
Community, members of the Empire, friends of human
freedom, to stand by Indians, to co-operate with Indians in
securing the success of the great experiment on which the
honour of England is staked and on which the future of
India so largely depends

It is true, as Sir Verney Lovett admits, that educated
Indians have had some reason to complain of social barriers
and that avoidable incidents occur from time to time But
the existing wall of reserve has been buttressed largely by
the extreme sensitiveness and racial dislike often cherished
by Nationalists themselves who desire that no Indians of
prominence should be associated with Europeans even in
social matters, quite forgetting that in the India of the
future the European will be present as well as the Indian,
and that the desire of the Indians “to be in their own
country what other people are in theirs, specially appeals
to the fair-minded Britisher in India as well as elsewhere
“ Mending of manners ” on both sides is devoutly to be
desired, for, as Lord Cromer has remarked, “it would be diffi-
cult to say which course of conduct has done more harm in
dealing with Easterns — discourtesy and violence on the one

2 16 The Indian National Movement

hand, or maudlin sentimentality and naive credulity on the
other.” Both extremes should be scrupulously avoided, and
in the spirit of the King- Emperor’s proclamations and
appeals Indians should be regarded and treated as fellow-
citizens and gentlemen, and inasmuch as trust begets trust,
they should be trusted, unless and until proved unworthy of
trust. Close co-operation for a common purpose between
Britons and Indians in a spirit of fair play is the key to the
whole position and constitutes the best guarantee for the
success of the great experiment approved by Parliament
and undertaken by the Government of India.

217

PROCEEDINGS OF THE EAST
INDIA ASSOCIATION

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOVERNMENT OF
WILD TRIBES OF THE NORTH EASTERN
FRONTIER OF INDIA

By Lilut.-Colonel John Shakespear, c m g , cie, aso

In presuming to discourse to you on the government of
Wild Tribes, I do not venture to claim to be an expert
in the art, but during a years sojourn in bed, for which
I have to thank the hated Hun, I have thought a good
deal over my experiences and have been able to look at
events more placidly than I did at the time, and to see
better the other fellow s point of view. So when I saw our
Hon Secretary’s invitation to members to volunteer to
read papers, I was bold enough to think that possibly my
reflections might be interesting and even useful

This paper is not based entirely on my own experiences,
but also on those of others with whom I have discussed the
difficulties inseparable from governing Wild Tribes, and of
getting one’s way with the powers that be

Before we go any further, let us take up the question
of how it comes about that Wild Tribes have to be
governed The governing of these folk is a troublesome,
often thankless, and always expensive matter Why, then,
does the Government of India take it up ? Well, certainly
not because it likes it In fact, the Goveinment of India
will never take over the administration of any of them
until every other expedient has been tried. These Wild
Tribes round the borders of our settled districts are restless
folk with short memories A raid on a peaceful village
VOL xvi.

i

218 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

across the border is accompanied with very little danger,
and is almost sure to result in considerable profit, while the
honour and glory attached to the killing of human beings
is great — in fact, among some tribes, no girl will marry
a youth till he has brought back a head, and among others
the killing of an enemy is one of the qualifications necessary
for the soul s passage to the happy hunting grounds
Therefore it is not to be wondered at that there are rrtany
volunteers whenever a raid into our territory is proposed.
The raiders, starting probably from a village several days’
journey from the border and travelling swiftly by httle-used
paths, appear suddenly before dawn, burst into the village,
kill the men, old women and infants, capturing as many
young women and children as they can, and, loading
on them as much loot as they can carry, are well on their
way home before the news of the raid has reached the
nearest Frontier outpost

Now, what can be done to punish such folk ? Occasionally
luck may be on our side a British officer may happen to be
sufficiently near to pursue the raiders, inflict some loss and
recover the captives , but such luck is rare, and generally
the raiders reach thur village m safety, to be received with
joyous shouts and much beer as befits such heroes Then
there are two courses open to us, either to sit still and
strengthen the frontier outposts — a “ wait and see policy
which is perhaps even more fatal on the Indian Frontier
than elsewhere — or to organize an expedition to punish the
offenders Even if such an expedition is entirely successful,
its effect is but small A few villages and granaries are
burnt, very few of the enemy are seen, and still fewer
are killed. It is safe to say that the punishment inflicted by
even the biggest of our expeditions is forgotten in less than
a generation. What wonder, then, that raids recur with
monotonous regularity, till the patience of Government
is exhausted and the order goes forth to occupy and
administer the country 1

A military force enters the hills, and probably meets

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 219

with little serious opposition, as the tribes all feel sure that
the force will soon retire as all other forces have done
before So when the unhealthy season begins the general
and his merry men return home to enjoy the rewards of their
toil, leaving a young Political Officer and a small garrison
in a fort on a hill-top to represent that mysterious being the
Sarkar, and to introduce pax Bntanmca among tribes which
are pretty sure to be in a constant state of war among
themselves

Let us now consider the matter of governing Wild
Tribes from two points Of view — viz that of the Wild
Tribes themselves, and that of those who govern them.
This latter point of view is really dual for there is that of
the officer on the spot and that of the Government behind
him These two views often differ considerably

The position from the Wild Tribes point of view is
this Some have already made a sort of submission
to the General sahib but when they made it they hardly
bargained for the permanent occupation of their country
Some think the sahib may be bamboozled into helping
them in their quarrels, some stand frigidly aloof All
feel sure that the foreigners cannot remain long , they 11
soon eat up all the food they have brought and then they 11
go away So all incline to wait and see what will happen

Next to take the Governments point of view First
there’s the bill to pay, which, like most of our bills, is bigger
than it was expected to be — still, there has been little
resistance There seems a fair chance of all being well and
that a spell of economy may enable it to recoup the heavy
expenses of the expedition It fully means to do its duty
by its new subjects, but it has many other things to think of,
many troublesome folk to deal with many calls on its purse,
and altogether it rather feels it has done enough for that
portion of its charge for some time to come

Now for the Political Officers point of view He is on
trial, very much on trial The Wild Tribes on one side
are watching him very closely, and on their opinion of him

220 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

much depends ; on the other side Government also is
watching, certainly with no unkind thoughts — in fact,
sympathetically, but still critically. And all is so new, so
very new ; possibly he has been previously employed
on the frontier and may know something of the tribes
close to it, but now he is in contact with many others. If
he is lucky, he may know a little of the language of one
of the many tribes he is expected to rule, but probably even
his interpreter cannot speak more than two or three of the
dozen different dialects used, and the interpreter himself is
only an ignorant, semi-wild tribesman, who can be trusted to
get drunk whenever he is urgently required to keep sober.

At first our young friend has not much scope for show-
ing his capabilities as a governor, for, as I have said, his
future subjects are like Brer Fox, lying low and waiting;
but he’ll have lots to do organizing the machinery of his
little kingdom, for he is probably responsible for the
whole show — supply, commissariat, transport, public works,
posts and telegraphs, medical and sanitary arrangements.
Fortunately he is probably not overburdened with in-
structions. To govern with equity and good conscience,
untrammelled by rules, laws or conventions, were my first
orders.

So there they are. The Wild Tribes shy and fidgety
like unbroken colts ; Government anxious to do its duty,
but burdened with many other cares ; and the Political
Officer zealous and eager, but with a great deal to learn,
and much impressed with the importance and the difficulties
of his post.

“Just you touch me, and see what you’ll get” is the
attitude of the tribes. The Political Officer is not anxious
for a row. He knows Government wants to keep down
expenses, and that if he can get along without asking for
help from outside it will be counted unto him for righteous-
ness ; so if he is wise he will go cautiously. As a
good rider, however fearless, tries the paces of a new
and timid mount before taking him over jumps, so the

221

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India

Political Officer extends his control little by little and
tightens it by degrees Let us hope that he has been
supplied with a sufficient force, sufficient not only in
numbers but also in quality, equipment and transport, and
that it is entirely at his disposal If he has a detachment
from the Regular Army, he can trust to its bang efficient
and well equipped, but he will not be able to move it
about as freely as if it were military police The equip-
ment, etc , of a police force will probably cause him much
anxiety, but, on the other hand, the men will quickly get
accustomed to the country and will become hardier, more
useful, and require less mothering than regular troops, who
only come for a short time and cannot be expected to take
as much interest in the work as police, who are going
to make the country their home So, on the whole, let us
hope that he has an efficient and sufficient force of military
police at his disposal I say at his disposal, for it is all-
important that he should be able to move them about
without asking anyone s permission Fifty men on the
spot to-day may prevent an outbreak occurring but once it
has occurred it may take many hundreds to quell it Let
us also hope that our young Political has sufficient
European officers to help him I always reckoned a good
British officer as equivalent to a hundred rifles A keen
youngster from a good public school, sound in wind and
limb, can generally be trusted to make a good Frontier
Officer if wisel) treated

Though things will probably remain fairly quiet for a bit,
trouble is sure to come go he never so warily, a time will
come when our Political has to fight or lose hts prestige ,
and once this is lost, the sooner he packs up his traps and
quits the country the better for all concerned What will
cause the trouble 7 Well, it may be that a truculent chief
prefers to settle his quarrels in the old way, by raiding his
neighbour s village to laying the case before a fair-skmned
boy of half his age, or declines absolutely to pay any house
tax, or supply any labour, or to come in to answer a charge

222 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

brought against him by a lesser chief, or even by one of
his own subjects. There are numberless causes of quarrel.
If our Political is wise, he will so manage matters that the
quarrel shall be over a matter of first importance, and he
will select the most powerful opponent available. For
when it comes to justifying his action in the eyes of
Government, there must be no question as to his having
been right to fight, and by selecting a powerful opponent
he will considerably lessen the chances of having to fight
again. With the same object, he will make sure that the
fight shall be to a finish, and he will do all in his power to
make the punishment real ; he will not be satisfied with
merely storming stockades and burning empty villages,
which can easily be rebuilt. He will consider carefully
what form of punishment the enemy will feel most, and
that he will inflict, not out of any feeling of anger or hatred,
but simply because he knows well that it is the surest way
to prevent a recurrence of the trouble. A Lushai once
said to me, “ Fighting you is like a man cutting the mist
with a dao : the dao goes through, but it leaves no mark ;
we ambush you, and shoot more of your men than you do
of ours, but it makes no difference — you go on, and when
the rains come you go back to your comfortable forts and
we are left in the jungles with no houses, no food, and no
land ready for cultivation. Who will fight you again ?”
Then I knew my policy had been the right one.

One point he should never overlook : he must never
negotiate a peace. No chief must be able to say, "We
both got tired of fighting, so we agreed to stop.” Once a
chief elects to fight, there must be no terms but uncon-
ditional surrender. This does not necessarily mean a very
long war, for if the war be carried on wisely, the hostile
chief will gradually lose his followers, and become a fugitive
of so little account that he may be ignored till an oppor-
tunity occurs to capture him — perhaps by a rapid night
march. Even if he has to wait five years, as I did once,

it is better than negotiating a peace.

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 223

In imposing punishments it is necessary to distinguish
very clearly between offences committed before and those
committed after submission Theoretically, after any area
has been taken over, all its inhabitants become automatic-
ally British subjects but I never treated a chief as a rebel
unless he had formally made his submission previous to
the outbreak of hostilities Theories our young friend will
do well to abjure In dealing with his Wild Tribes let
him stick to facts especially when the time comes, as it
very soon will, for him to decide what he shall call on his
people to pay and to do In explaining matters to them
let him be quite candid He will do well to keep always
before them that he is not there for his own pleasure that
Government did not occupy their country just for fun but
in consequence of their folly in continually raiding peaceful
villages Now that the Sarkar has taken possession of
their country, the wisest thing they can do is to obey his
orders He must be ver> careful not to pamper them but
on the other hand, he must steer clear of needlessly giving
offence He must study his wild folk till he really under-
stands their point of view and can * think black Evenings
spent round the beer pot are by no means wasted mudi
useful knowledge can be picked up

It is impossible to give any infallible rule for acquiring
the necessary influence over these Wild Tribes Colonel
Lewin, the Pioneer in the Lushai Hills gained such an
influence over the people that forty 5 ears after his departure
he was spoken of as the greatest of the sahibs , yet lesser
men, who tried to imitate him in his free and easy fellow-
ship with those he had to govern failed miserably Let a
man be honest, straightforward and sympathetic, not easily
excited, but patient and persevering and ready to learn,
anxious really to know the folk he has to govern, and he
will find that they will respond and gradually learn to
trust and love him

It is, of course, most important to get as many of his
subjects to co-operate with him as possible Let him

224 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

begin with the Chiefs or village Elders, or Priests, whoever
are the acknowledged leaders Let him be very careful
not to undermine their authority Their rule and adminis-
tration of justice may be rough and not quite according to
our ideas, but the people have been accustomed to it , and
let him meditate seriously over the problem of governing
without these recognized rulers He and his few assistants,
with all the will in the world will never be able to cope
with the work unaided You may think that it will be
easy to avoid interfering I can assure you it will be
difficult , almost the most difficult task in governing such
tribes is to ensure to the individual a reasonable amount of
justice, without utterly ruining the prestige of the native
rulers These rulers, be they chiefs or elders, will feel,
coming under our rule more than anyone else, however
gently they are treated, their position must suffer to some
extent Before, they were probably autocrats to a very
considerable extent, this they no longer can be It is
only natural that they should feel the change acutely,
especially the older and more influential among them
There will probably be some old and obstinate irreconcil-
ables with whom nothing can be done, but with patience,
by sympathetic and tactful handling, the majority of the
chiefs may be won over Some compensations may be
found for their lost autocratic powers, and though it will
be long before they cease occasionally to bemoan the
departure of the good old days, yet they will see the
wisdom of abstaining from opposition and should gradually
become useful assistants in the governing of the country,
and their value cannot be overestimated

In the administration of justice our young friend must
beware of introducing any legal procedure, pleaders, vakils
and such like must on no account be admitted into his
district If he finds that any of the folk he has to govern
really believe that the swearing of a false oath will bring
down on them God s wrath, surely he will be wise to make
full use of this belief, and if he finds that a section has faith

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 225

in an ordeal, he will be unwise to discredit it. Let me give
you instances :

My friend the Hon. Mr. W. J. Reid, now Commissioner
of the Assam Valley, when he was in charge of the Naga
Hills, had a complaint laid before him by the Elders of a
certain village that they suspected that men of a neigh-
bouring village had stolen their cattle ; they had no proof,
but they asked him to call on the Elders of the suspected
village to swear on the lives of the whole village that no
one had stolen the cattle. These Elders, on being told of
the accusation, returned home and took an oath of each
householder on the lives of his household that none of them
had stolen the cattle ; and having done this, they came back
and in the presence of their accusers, with all due solemnity
swore the necessary oath, whereupon their defamers paid
up the customary fine and the case was apparently over ;
but after a very short time the victorious elders returned
with woebegone countenances and reported that three men
having died in their village, they knew that someone had
sworn falsely, and finally three men had confessed to the
theft. They now tendered four animals for each of those
stolen and demanded permission to expel the thieves from
the village, not for being thieves, mind you, but for having
sworn a false oath. The three men were taken to the
village boundary and driven over with only a cloth apiece ;
wives, children, houses, land and all they possessed were
forfeited, and if they ever recrossed the boundary they
were to be liable to imprisonment. In old days they would
have been liable to death. In that particular only did
Mr. Reid deviate from the tribal custom.

Once, just as the complainant was about to take an oath
before me on the lives of all his family, the latter forcibly
withdrew the case and the complainant, saying they refused
to have their lives risked.

A curious scene comes to my memory. The sun has
just risen, and it is bitterly cold ; we are grouped round the
sides of a deepish pool in a small river ; two men stark

226 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

naked are standing shivering in the water. On a big stone
where the two shivering mortals can see him, stands a
young British officer with his hat raised The shivering
ones are heroes in their own way they are the head men of
two villages who are about to uphold the claims of their
rival villages to certain lands by the ordeal of diving One
is an expert swimmer, the other, as he plaintively explains,
hates water “Is your claim just ? asks the young officer
“ Certainly ’ replies the poor unwilling diver * Then fear
nothing God will protect you,” is the cheering reply As
the sahib’s hat goes down both head men duck under the
water The expert vain in his own strength swims about
below the surface while the other squats down and grasps
a huge boulder The water is so clear that every move-
ment is apparent In a very short time pride has a fall a
considerable portion of the swimmers body emerges, and
with a yell his opponents claim the verdict and rush into the
water, whence they drag their nearly exhausted champion
‘ I told you God would protect you ’ says the sahib, “ and
you see He did ’ Such methods of settling cases may not
be m accordance with High Court rulings, and they
certainly do not make the legal profession a paying one ,
on the other hand, they are approved of by the people, and
they do not encourage or tempt people to lie Where such
customs do not exist or in cases unsuitable for such
methods of adjustment, a magistrate must trust to his
common sense, he must not be hampered by any rules
of procedure , and let us hope that should any sentence of
his be appealed against, the officer disposing of the appeal
will remember that the opinion of one who knows the
people he has to deal with, and who has heard the evidence
and seen the witnesses, should never be overridden
because the standard of proof may not be up to that
insisted on by a High Court The effect of the release,
by order of some superior power, of a criminal, whom all
know to have been justly convicted, is most prejudicial to

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 227

the prestige of the local officers, and greatly increases their
already difficult task

Besides the customs connected with the administration
of justice, our young governor will find many others of
which at first sight he cannot approve, but let him not
be in a hurry to attempt to alter them Let him remember
that they have grown up gradually, and the fact that the>
exist is pnma facie evidence that they are suitable to the
conditions and the stage of development which his people
have reached The more extraordinary a custom appears
to him the more carefully should he study it from all
points of view, and the more carefully should he observe
its working before interfering with it He will often find
that there are many safety valves which effectively prevent
evil resulting from a custom which at first he may think
very objectionable If after due consideration he decides
that a change must be made he will be wise to remember
that there are other ways of killing a wasp than sitting on it
Much depends on how he proceeds and his success or
failure will depend on the degree to which he has learnt to
understand his people

The number of subjects which early force themselves
into prominence is too great to be dealt with in this paper
One of the first to be tackled is communications a good
system of roads with rest camps at convenient distances is
absolutely necessary and will go far towards settling the
district A well-laid out headquarter station too, is impor
tant laid out with a view to possible expansion and
carried out in such a way as to impress the natives with the
idea of the permanency of his sojourn , for the notion that
the foreigners will soon retire dies hard and till it is dead
he will find it a great obstacle to progress For roads and
buildings labour will be needed and must be got as much
as possible locally Probably at first it will have to be
impressed So many days labour a year from each house
will be one of the terms to which every village must agree
Impressment of labour is open to objection but in many

22% Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

cases it is unavoidable, and it has its uses And it must be
remembered that such a district as I am dealing with brings
in practically no revenue, and has been occupied at a great
financial loss solely because its inhabitants have refused to
abstain from raiding the adjoining settled districts It is
therefore only just to make the natives, as far as they can,
supply the necessary labour, etc , so as to keep down the
cost of the administration, which has to be met out of taxes
levied on the settled districts While insisting on the
supply of labour and of rice for his garrisons, a wise ruler
will take every possible precaution to avoid the system
being abused and do all m his power to make it as little
irksome as possible He must look into every detail,
and punish very severely anyone guilty of oppression or
extortion Let him always remember that in the eyes
of his people he only is responsible, and that if corruption
and extortion and oppression thrive they put him down
either as a knave for winking at it, or a fool for not
detecting it

Education should be thought of early Here again
beware of theories, and stick to facts Let nothing be
taught which is not useful A sound system of translation
of the local tongue is a sine qua non For some time reading
and writing and simple arithmetic should suffice Better
many such schools than one school devoted to turning out
over educated, bumptious youngsters, too proud to work, a
curse to themselves and everybody

The question of the admission of missionaries will soon
crop up Good sensible missionaries are of great value
but they should not be given assistance by Government
In their own interests they must be left to make their own
way with the people , when the people realize that these
sahibs are not connected with Government they will be
much more inclined to confide in them A Government
officer, however much he may gain the love and respect of
his people, remains a ruler, one whose duty it is to punish
offenders and to exact Government dues , whereas wise

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 229

missionaries may earn the title of “The Natives’ Sahib,”
as they have done in the Lushai Hills. Once established
they will naturally take the lead in educational matters, and
when the time comes for something more than the simple
schools of early days they will be ready to start them, so
that the district may be self-supporting in the matter of
clerks and minor officials in all departments, and specially
capable youths may be sent to colleges to qualify for higher
posts. A school for the sons of chiefs may soon be
necessary, but care must be taken that the students are not
unfitted for the posts they are destined to occupy, by over-
education and pampering.

Technical education should be started at once r not by
founding an expensively equipped school in which theo-
retical instruction forms a big feature in the curriculum, but
by placing likely lads in the District Engineers workshops
and giving the head carpenters, smiths, and stone masons
small bonuses for instructing them.

You may smile when I suggest a newspaper as a
necessary aid to civilization, but I found it very useful. In
the first place, reading matter in the local language will
always be scanty, and at first almost non-existent, therefore
a monthly paper is sure to be read by the few scholars in each
village. A tale or two, all the local news, reports of any
cases which it is thought may be useful as examples, any
orders the Superintendent may wish widely known, will be
found to provide quite enough copy.

The medical officer and his assistants must be pressed
into the service of civilizing the wild folk. A sympathetic
and competent doctor babu at a distant outpost will do
much towards establishing friendly relations with the
people, and a clever surgeon has unlimited opportunities of
relieving pain and helping to reconcile the savage to the
occupation of his country. Of course, as in every other
branch, the customs of the people must be studied.

At Aijal, with a view to the impending visit of the
Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals, our M.O. laboured

230 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

hard to get a female ward added to his hospital. It was
finished just in time, and all the ladies were duly placed
therein on the morning of the inspection , but the great
man’s back was hardly turned before they were all back in
their old quarters with the men “ We don’t have separate
rooms in our own houses What can the Doctor sahib mean
by trying to keep us separate here said the ladies

The difficulty of getting the people to believe in the
permanency of our stay has already been referred to
Another point on which it is difficult to convince these
simple and at the same time shrewd folk is that their sahib
and the sahib ruling the next district are servants of the
same King When that great man Sir Bretram Carey,
who died alas ' a short time ago came over from the
Northern Chin Hills to assist me in quelling my rebellious
Lushais, one of my loyal chiefs asked me casually whether
Carey and I came from the same village Not quite
appreciating the reason which prompted the question, I
said, “ No our homes are some distance apart " Another
Chief then said to my questioner, “ You see I was right
It is as with us, each sahib has a village of his own Our
sahib and the Burma sahib are friends this year, but next
year they may quarrel, and then they will not help each
other ’ Here in London such a remark only sounds
stupid, but it expresses a very common belief among wild
folk who come in contact with us for the first time They
are very observant, and being themselves rigid followers of
tribal customs, they attribute any differences they observe
in the habits, modes of dress, or procedure of different
officers to their belonging to different tribes And this
notion is all the more natural when, as in the Chin Lushai
Hills, two adjoining districts are under different Govern-
ments It is important to impress on the people the unity
of purpose of all Government officers, and too much stress
cannot be laid on constant meetings of officers of adjoining
districts At these meetings all disputes between persons
on opposite sides of the border should be settled in open

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 231

court, the two officers sitting together The chiefs or head
men of one district should be introduced to the officer in
charge of the other, and be suitably entertained, so that
they may go away with the notion that the sahibs are really
brothers who will always support each other These wild folk
are very astute, and will always play off one officer against
another if they can One of the chief offenders, to punish
whom General T regear’s column was sent from Chittagong
in 1 889, was known there as Jahuta This astute individual
went to meet General Symons, who was coming from
Burma, with presents and offers of submission and promises
of loyalty, and for a time seemed likely to escape his well-
merited punishment, as General Symons did not know that
the obliging and friendly Jahwit was the same as Jahuta the
raider into Chittagong territory

I need hardly say that such districts as I am dealing with
cannot be governed from an office chair at Headquarters#
Every part of the district must be visited at least once a
year As far as possible cases must be settled on the spot
and in the village of the defendant This is important. All
these folks are litigious, and the temptation to prefer
frivolous complaints will be lessened if the complainant
has to trudge to the village of the defendant to get his
complaint inquired into

A matter for very serious consideration is the provision
of outlets for the energies of the people You cannot
expect a community of enterprising head hunters suddenly
to change into smug agriculturists, but the Khonoma men,
who fought the hardest of all the Naga tribes, and the
Siyins, who held out so long in the Chin Hills, have
developed into enterprising traders, travelling right across
India in search of particular beads, etc , to sell which they
tramp from village to village thioughout the hills A son
of a Lakher chief obtained a cross-cut saw through the
kindness of Mr Whalley, at that time Subdivisional
Officer at Lungleh, and amassed quite a fortune, being
able to supply planks with profit to himself at rates which

232 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

revolutionized the local market, Encouraged by my
versatile friend Lieutenant-Colonel Cole, the Lushais have
embarked on potato cultivation and poultry farming, much
to their advantage. To make people anxious to work you
must show them the value of money by bringing articles
which they want within their reach, especially within the
reach of the ladies of the community ; therefore, shop-
keepers should be encouraged and assisted to establish
themselves at all your posts, but on the money-lender you
must keep a very tight hold.

Before I close, I venture to say a few words regarding
the duty of Government to these backward districts. As
I have inculcated sympathetic treatment of his subjects by
the District Officer, so I plead for kind treatment of him
by the powers that be ; and speaking from my own
experience, I can say that he generally gets it. The life
of an officer in one of these frontier districts is not a very
easy one, especially in the early days, and he has many
difficulties that can hardly be appreciated by those at
Headquarters ; therefore, I plead he should not be too
strictly dealt with for errors of procedure or for occasional
errors of judgment, provided only that his heart has been
right. Also I plead that he be not burdened with corre-
spondence or called on to justify everything he does. Let
him know clearly the general lines on which you wish him
to administer his charge, and then leave him a free hand
as to details, and above all do not weaken his hands by
reversing his decisions, unless they are obviously wrong
and the matter is serious. If you cannot trust him, have
him out of the billet at once, but do not move your frontier
officers more often than you can help, and always remember
that personality counts more in these districts than clever-
ness and knowledge of codes.

As regards money, it is false economy to starve a new
district in the matter of roads and buildings. Good roads
and buildings save Jives in a bad climate, and facilitate
administration and control. It is sometimes argued that

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 233

in taking over one of these wild tracts, we should be
content to police it, without making any attempt to
develop it or civilize the people, which are expensive
operations Such a policy, however, is radically unsound,
and involves the permanent retention of a large garrison,
to overawe the warlike savages, whom a more broad-
minded policy would have converted into peaceable, easily
controlled folk

It is unwise to introduce Departmental control too soon
as it means binding the hands of the local officers with
cords of regulations. For years it is best to leave them
free, let them gradually, by working in the spirit while
disregarding the letter of rules and regulations, accustom
their people to wearing the yoke of civilization, so that
their necks may not be galled

Continuity of policy is all important, therefore do not
change your officers till a firm foundation has been laid
and should the permanent incumbent have to go on leave
do not allow his locum tenens to alter his system Nothing
unsettles a new district so much as constant changes in
procedure Unfortunately, the hill districts are a cul-de-
sac as regards promotions to the higher offices, and therefore
an ambitious man must seek a transfer in due course , but
even if he climbs very high up the ladder of official
promotion I am sure that he will always look back on
those early years among his wild folk as the happiest in
his life, when each morning brought its surprise, pleasant
or the reverse, and his days were crowded vi ith fresh
interests and new problems, when he first tasted the
dangerous delights of responsibility and power

VOL. XVI.

Q

234

DISCUSSION ON THE FOREGOING PAPER

A melting of the East India Association was held on Monday, Decem-
ber 15, at the Lincolnshire Room, 7 a, Tothill Street, Westminster, at
which a paper was read by Lieut Colonel John Shakespear, cmg,cie,
dso, entitled “Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes of the
North Eastern frontier of India ’ Sir J Bampfylde Fuller, kcsi,cie,
occupied the chair The following ladies and gentlemen, amongst others,
were present Sir I rank C Gates, kcie, csi, Sir C Sankaran Nair,
ci e, Sir W illiam Ovens Clark, Sir Herbert Holmwood, Mr P C
Lyon, c s 1 , cie, and Mrs Lyon, T H S Biddulph, c 1 e , and Mrs
Biddulph, Mr C t Buckland, c i.k , Mr A Porteous cif, Sardar
Khan Bahadur Rustom J Vakil, iso, Lady Katharine Stuart, Mrs
Hope Shakespear, Mr T C Goswami, Miss Webster, Mrs and Miss
Shakespear, Miss Vertue, Major Wilkins, Mr Gerald Ritchie and Mrs
Ritchie, Mrs Edward Ritchie, The Rev Dr Durham, Mr M C Chagla,
Mr S S. Gnana Viran, Mr J B Pennington, Mr John C Nicholson,
Mr G Owen Dunn, Colonel and Mrs A S Roberts, Mr. R Grant
Brown Miss Horne, The Miss Sorabjee, Miss Sykes, Miss Swainson,
Mr F C Charming, Mr \\ Kerr, Mr R W Kettle, Mr E B Havell,
Mrs Gaussen, Mrs Haigh, Mr G M Ryan, Mr M Houghton, Mr
D 1 Patwardhan, Mrs Collis, Mr E S Bates, The Rev W L Broadbent,
and Mr Stanley P kice, Hon Secretary

The Chairman, in introducing the Lecturer, said that Colonel Shake-
spear was a specialist in the governing of wild tribes, having spent many
years in ruling them, with very great success Years ago he had had the
pleasure of working in collaboration with the Lecturer m Assam — a
province surrounded by wild tribes — and he could safely say that in the
semi political semi adminstrative work involved m the control of tnbal
areas Colonel Shakespear was surpassed by none If he were asked for
the secret of Colonel Shakespear s success he would say it was because,
behind a mild— and indeed, a gentle — demeanour, he concealed an inflexible
purpose , in fact he had the iron hand in the velvet glove, the hand of the
successful colonel, the successful schoolmaster and of him who successfully
drove a young and skittish horse

The wild tribes upon which the Lecturer was to address them were
almost his own discovery, he was one of the earliest Englishmen to become
resident in their hills, and the Lushai Hills district might practically be
called Shakespear land, for it might be said without much exaggeration
that he had created it When he first went up into that tangle of bamboo
covered hills there was little except a few scattered villages, but before he
left he had made roads, established schools, and created a headquarters

Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes 235

station in the middle of the jungle — a miracle of neatness, with an excellent
polo ground The wild tribes of Assam contributed c everal labour
battalions to the service of the war Colonel Shakespear himself sought
active service, and added to his many distinctions the melancholy one of
appearing before them that evening on crutches He had great pleasure
in calling upon Colonel Shakespear to speak for himself (Hear, hear )

The lecture was then read, and received with loud applause

The Chairman Ladies and gentlemen, I see on the agenda paper
“The Chairman now addresses the meeting I wish he had not to, for I
should like first of all to hear what others have to say I hope there will
be some discussion on the paper Our first thought will be that we have
been listening oot to an essay but an autobiography Colonel Shakespear s
notes are of difficulties he has met and the feelings he has felt during
many years when he presided over the I ushai Hills district, a district of
which he himself was practically the master It is not given to many
Englishmen to be able to look at an area on the map surrounded by a
line of colour and feel that 1 I made that, but this is a feeling which
Colonel Shakespear may experience (Hear hear) He went amongst
the Lushais when they were what are vulgarly called “savages That is
to say, they had a different code of morality from our own with them
homicide was a means of winning distinction It is an extremely difficult
thing to get people to change their methods of achieving honour They
cling to their ideals, however inconvenient I learnt, myself, in dealing
with the tribesmen of the Naga Hills, how hard it is to g t people to realize
that there were other means of winning pride than that of taking heads
I was amused one day, in visiting a chief to find that he had compromised
on the question Interdicted from taking heads, he had collected a
number of pumpkins which with some splashes of colour served to
decorate his house front in the traditional fashion He was quite proud
of them

Coming to these tribesmen from the outside— from other paits of India
— I was particularly struck with their groat intelligence We call them
“ wild tribes with a vague idea that they are monkey like Far from it
They reason extremely well, and are by no means slow in learning One
of the largest villages in the Naga Hills had, many years ago, rebelled,
and there were disturbances which led to military action The magistrate
of the district was killed It was necessary to give the people a severe
lesson, and amongst other things the Government decided to locate a small
fort in the village It so happened that when the fort was laid out,
't included part of the village cemetery, since this occupied the crest of the
hill on which the fort had to be placed This hurt the villagers feelings
very greatly , it was a constant thorn in their side, and whenever I visited
the district a deputation presented itself, praying me to have the fort
dismantled and its guard removed from the village I thought that, as
a matter of fact, the time had come for its withdrawal, but not liking to
make the concession without demanding something in return which would
show that it was not made in weakness, I told them half in jest that

236 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

I would take the fort away as soon as a dozen children in their village
could do a sura in compound long division 1 “ What is that ?” they

asked I told them that it was arithmetic u Very well,” they said, u but
you must send us a schoolmaster ’ , and they were quite contented when
I promised to do so 1 wo years later, on a visit to the village, I inspected
the school, and found twelve children who had learnt enough in this time to
qualify as propitiation, so I did my part In truth, these hill people are
clever enough, but we do not appreciate their cleverness because it runs on
in an imaginative line To govern them successfully you must be imagina
live also , you must, so to speak, get back into the Bible They think in
Biblical fashion, and the judgments which they appreciate are such as
those of Solomon Colonel Shakespear s anecdote about ordeal by diving
sounds absurd, but it represents ideas that have influenced ancient history
very profoundly To illustrate their point of view, I will relate another ex-
perience of my own. Making a visit one day to a tea planter, who was
exceedingly successful in the management of his labour force, I found him
paying his coolies, sitting at a table m the tea garden by the side of a tank
I noticed that from time to time, before paying a coolie, he took two
or three annas from his wages, and threw them into the water I naturally
asked him why he did this “They are fines, he said, “for non
atte*' -*006 or idleness “ But why, I asked, “ throw them into the
tan’ Because,” he replied, ‘ they must not think that I profit by

fimn -n or want their money It was what the French call “ un
beau t ”

Short after that troubles arose with some tribesmen on the northern
Assam uontier An Englishman, who was expert in elephant catching,
had illeg lly crossed their boundary in search of elephants, and had camped
well within their territory without taking the precaution of “ squaring” the
chief They raided his camp one nu,ht, burnt one of his tents, and looted
his camp kit The Englishman made a complaint to me, and I went into
the case He was clearly to blame— and much to blame — for crossing the
boundary , but the tribesmen had also acted very wrongly in taking the
law into their own hands instead of seeking justice from the Government
I was in a difficulty, but I remembered the lesson I had learnt from the
tea planter I fined the elephant hunter five hundred rupees, and I asked
the District Magistrate to summon the tribesmen to meet him on a cliff
which overhung the river Subansin, on their border, to explain to them
that they had been wronged by the Enghshn an who crossed their border ,
but, on the other hand, that they had behaved very badly themselves
in offering violence instead of complaining to me of the occurrence The
Englishman had been fined, and, had they complained to me, the money
would have been given them in compensation The five hundred rupees
was then to be shown to them, and thrown into the river This was done,
and I had no more trouble whatever with these people Indeed, I was
told that they spent the whole of their time ineffectually diving for the
money . This illustrates what they understand and respect To ordinary
civilized English people a procedure such as this smacks of All Baba

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India 237

or the pantomime, but to an imaginative mind it is seriously impressive.
If you are picturesque, you will convince them ; if you are conventional,
you will not. (Hear, hear )

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I invite discussion, and I hope that some
contributions to the subject will come from amongst you

Lady Katharine Siuart said she would like to say how very greatly
she had enjoyed the Lecturer’s account of the wild tribes It had, how-
ever, occurred to her to wonder whether, looking at the thing from the
tribes’ point of view, they were being asked to accept something they
did not understand and from which they accordingly shrank Indians
had said things to her which led her to think that that was, in part, their
attitude of mind towards Western civilization She thought it a splendid
idea put forward in the lecture and also by the chairman to hold out
knowledge as an inducement to them to civilize themselves If you saw
two children pursuing one another and approaching a precipice you would
not advance towards them in a menacing manner, you would seek to
allure them away from the danger by a counter attraction Christianity
when practised in all the beauty of holiness could offer such a counter
attraction The “ excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

“ Who taught mankind on that first Christmas Day
What ’twas to be a Man to give, not take,

To serve, not rule , to nourish, not devour ,

To help, not crush , if need, to die, not live ”

These wild tribes were child intelligences, and if the Apostle said, “To
the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak,” might we not
apply the principle and become a child in order to gain the children
— take part m what to us was “ a pretty play ” and so forth ? Our
civilization was very imperfect , there was still a good deal of fear mingled
with the love ; but we were told to “ be perfect,” and therefore the perfect
love that casteth out fear was the ideal at which to aim — we must not be
satisfied to come short of it 1 hat “ civilization perfected is fully
developed Christianity ” is the whole truth in the judgment of the poet

The Society of Friends had dealt faithfully with wild tribes according
to the Christian ideal and with great success , according to our faith it
should be unto us Human nature was a nobler thmg than we took it
to be perhaps, and would respond to nobleness on the part of the Western
brother. God had manifested Himself to us in the form of a servant, a
physician, a shepherd, a carpenter, and we could, without loss of prestige
perhaps, become less the governors and more the servants of those we
desired to see “lifted up for ever.”

She felt how much Colonel Shakespear had done in that direction and
what a blessing he must have been to those people She hoped progress
would continue.

Mr. Chanmng said that as speakers did not seem very numerous,
although his service in India was in a very different part, he would like
to say a few words. He had been greatly interested in the lecture, and
very much struck by the thorough sound sense of the recommendations

23 8 Reflections on the Government oj Wild Tribes

made The particular subject he would like to speak of was that of ordeal
Some of those present who had never studied the English criminal law
perhaps did not know that ordeal was not a matter solely confined to the
East, but was an old method of settling criminal cases in England, and
it was only about one hundred years ago that this method of deeding
criminal cases was finally abolished by Act of Parliament Ordeal was
not an incident of prosecutions by the Crown against the accused, but of
a charge brought by the person injured or his heir He had, himself, had
to decide cases by ordeal Some forty five years ago, when he was a
Settlement Officer, there was a boundary dispute between his district and
a native state where the boundary had never been settled , it was marked
as disputed in the old maps He and the political officer of the state spent
a long time over the matter, but could not come to any decision As it
was getting dark one of the natives from one village said if a particular
man of the other village would take the image of the god in one hand and
a bottle of Ganges water in the other and would walk from one undisputed
boundary mark to the other, they would accept that boundary It was
a very serious thing for the man who had to walk the boundary, as, if a
cow or a son of his should happen to die it would be considered a
punishment from above, but he accepted It was getting dark but they
got torches and they walked along the top of a rocky hill behind the
accepted referee and in that way they settled the boundary, and there
was never any dispute about it There is a story that Sir Henry Lawrence,
as a young man, in another case where there never had been a boundary
fixed decided it in this way Each side chose a man , the right leg of
one was tied to the left leg of the other and they started off They had
to get to another pillar, and whatever line they took that was the boundary
As a matter of fact in that kind of dispute it was far more satisfactory to the
people to decide things in that way (Hear, hear )

The Chairman I will now ask the Lecturer to say a few words in
reply.

The Lecturer in reply said I am glad to say there are not many
criticisms to answer Regarding the remarks of Lady Katharine Stuart, I
quite agree with all she says, but it is hardly the place of the Governor to
be a missionary, and, as I have said, the best thing you can do for the
missionaries is to give them a fair field and no favour If you support the
missionaries, so that it looks as if they are your men, you take away half
their appeal to the people (Hear, hear ) I have had cases of
missionaries who were sent up with the forces of the State behind them
and plumped down in the village, where the people were ordered to send
so many children to the school They sent the children to school, but
they sent nothing else, and not a soul would go near him With us
missionaries were told, “ You come up and the Government will protect your
life and property, but nothing else ” In one case they sat for six weeks on
the banks of a river waiting till they could get someone to volunteer to
carry their loads up to the top of the hill Nevertheless the Deputy
Commissioner said No, I am afraid I cannot help you , you must get up

239

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India

yourselves. Eventually they got there, and managed to get a bouse built.
Then there came up the question of their going out to visit, and they
said, “ Cannot you help us ?” and I said, “ No, I am afraid I cannot, you had
better stay where you are till someone asks you ’ As a matter of fact, they
had amongst their possessions a magic lantern, and one day were giving an
entertainment, and a young chief from an adjacent village came in and saw
this magic lantern, and he said “ Why do you not show this in my village?”
They said “ How are we to get there?” He replied “ There are twenty
young men there , come along to-morrow,” and out they went, and the
fame of this chief who had a magic lantern in his own village was so great
that the next day they were earned off somewhere else , and once the
narrow edge of the wedge was in they were welcomed all through the hills,
and were perpetually touring The best thing the Government can do is
to protect the missionary and give him a fair chance, but not to let it be
supposed that he is their man, so as to give no excuse to the people for
thinking they are compelled to be Christians That British rule is not
objectionable to the people, may I quote an incident about Sir Bampfylde
At a great Durbar he had in the Naga Hills, when there were some fifteen
hundred wild men, dressed up in their war paint, dancing round, at the end
of it three miserable creatures were dragged forward and threw themselves
down on the ground and embraced Sir Bampfylde’s feet Those men
were not appealing for justtce, but they simply wanted to know what crime
they had done that when a large number of neighbouring villages had
been taken under Sir Bampfylde’s rule they had not been included They
were beyond the border, and had not been included, and came and
besought Sir Bampfylde to be included (Hear, hear )

Sir Bampfylde gave me the credit of the formation of the Station
Headquarters, but I do not claim that credit That is entirely du<“ to
Lieut -Colonel G H Loch He was an engineer by inclination, and
happened to become a soldier, and he was sent there as Commandant of
military police, and he went there and found the place a ridge of hills
fairly well cleared, and with nothing but t mber houses built, and the
actual jungle that grew there Most of it was tea trees He was, as I say,
an engineer and builder, and he said “ Why do not we have stone houses?”
and Mr Davies, who had been in the Naga Hills, said “ Why, we have not
got stone houses yet where we have been for ten years ” Colonel Loch
said “More disgrace to you,” and set to work to build himself a stone
house He then went to the Government and said “ May I build a stone
barracks ? I will sell this house to the Government for what it cost me,
6,000 rupees, or for whatever your man says it is worth ’ P W D
measured it up and said it was worth 7,000, but the Government only
gave him 6,000 Then he got permission to start, and, with such sepoys
as he could teach, he built the whole of the station in solid stone He
was the only man 1 have ever known who managed to get sepoys to work
willingly He had a most wonderful system of each man doing a certain
amount of work On Saturday everyone did eight hours’ digging or
building, whatever it was, and as he came home one day he said “You

240 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

know, I think I am a very good man If you notice, Saturday is always
fine, and now there are 800 beggars here praying for a wet day, and I am
the only one praying for fine weather *' The polo ground which has been
mentioned was originally a ridge or spur running out from the main hill,
and this was the married quarters They were much too near to the
bachelors’ quarters, so Colonel Loch said, “ Away with them 1 ’ and he put
them right away on to another branch of the hill, and he cut this big spur
down, and when he had finished he had 150 feet of filling on one
side, and 50 feet of sheer cutting on the other side, and it cost the
Government nothing As a matter of fact, he did it out of the cantetn
funds, because the men worked hard all day and got so thirsty and then
went and satisfied their thirst, and the profits of the canteen went into the
parade ground

Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all for the kind way in which you
have received my lecture (Hear, hear, and applause )

Mr Gerald Ruchie said it gave him very great pleasure to propose
a hearty vote of thanks to Lieutenant-Colonel Shakespear for the states
manlike and wise paper that he had just read (Hear, hear ) He was not
going to discuss the paper, but he wished to say a few words of a personal
character, for which he hoped he would be excused He desired to refer
to Colonel Shakespear s father, Sir Richmond Shakespear It often hap-
pened that Anglo Indians were oblivious of the services of those who had
gone before them, and he thought this was a good opportunity of recalling
to their memories the services that Sir Richmond rendered to India Sir
Richmond was well known for having made perhaps as momentous a
journey as was ever recorded in Indian history from Khiva to Orenburg
m Russia in 1840 taking back with him 416 Russian subjects to be
restored to Russia lhat wonderful journey has been recorded in an
article m Blackwood (June, 1S42), which he was not aware had ever been
reproduced, but it was well worth reading When he reached Orenburg
he went to St Petersburg, and received the thanks of the Czar and then
came to London, when I ord Palmerston wrote to him and offered him a
knighthood, which he accepted He was about the youngest lieutenant
of the Bengal Artillery who had ever had that distinction Then Sir
Richmond was General Pollock s assistant during the Afghan War, and in
the little book that he held in his hand there was a grateful letter, dated
Cabool, September 24, 1842, from Lady Sale, Sir Vincent Lyre, and many
others of the captives, declaring their profound recognition of Sir Rich
mond’s efforts on their behalf He was not going to go through all
Sir Richmonds great career, but he wanted to read what William
Makepeace Ihackeray, his first cousin, said about him Thackeray, in
his article " On Letts s Diary ’ in the Roundabout Papers , wrote the
following words, which, if they would allow him, he would like to quote

** And now, brethren, may I conclude this discourse with an extract
out of that great diary, the newspaper? I read it but yesterdaj, and
it has mingled with all my thoughts since then. Here are the two
paragraphs, which appeared following each other

“ * Mr R , the Advocate-General of Calcutta, has been appointed

of the North-Eastern Frontier of India

241

to the post of Legislative Member of the Council of the Governor
General ’

“ ‘ Sir R S , Agent to the Governor-General for Central India,
died on the 29th of October, of bronchitis '

“ These two men, whose different fates are recorded tn two para-
graphs and half a dozen lines of the same newspaper, were sisters’
sons In one of the stories by the present writer, a man is described
tottenng * up the steps of the ghaut,’ having parted with his child,
whom he is despatching to England from India I wrote this,
remembering in long, long distant days such a ghaut or river stair at
Calcutta, and a day when, down those steps, to a boat which was in
waiting, came two children, whose mothers remained on the shore
One of those ladies was never to see her boy more , and he, too,
is just dead in India, ‘Of bronchitis, on the 29th October’, and
the first house in London to which I was taken was that of our aunt,
the mother of his Honour, the Member of Council His Honour
was even then a gentleman of the long robe, being, m truth, a baby
in arms 1 We Indian children were consigned to a school of which
our deluded parents had heard a favourable report, but which was
governed by a horrible little tyrant, who made our young lives so
miserable that I remember kneeling by my little bed of a night and
saying, ‘ Pray God I may dream of my mother ’ Thence we went to
a public school, and my cousin to Addiscombe and to India * I or
thirty-two years,’ the paper says, ‘Sir Richmond Shakespeir faithfully
and devotedly served the Government of India and during that
period but once visited F ngland for a few months and on public
duty In tns military capacity he saw much service was present in
eight general engagements, and was badly wounded m the last
In 1840, when a young lieutenant, he had the rare good fortune to be
the means of rescuing from almost hopeless slaver) in Khiva 416 sub
jects of the Emperor of Russia, and, but two years later, greatly con
tributed to the happy recover) of our own prisoners from a similar
fate in Cabul Ihroughout his career this officer was ready and
zealous for the public service, and freely risked life and liberty in the
discharge of his duties I ord C anmng, to mark his high sense of
Sir Richmond Shakespear s public services had lately offered him the
Chief Comnussionership of Mysore, which he had accepted, and was
about to undertake, when death terminated his career

“ When he came to London the cousins and playfellows of early
Indian days met once again, and shook hands * Can I do anything
for you ?’ I remember the kind fellow asking He was always asking
that question of all kinsmen, of all widows and orphans, of all the
poor, of young men who might need his purse or his service I saw
a young officer yesterday to whom the first words Sir Richmond Shake
spear wrote on his arrival in India were ‘Can I do anything for
you? His purse was at the command of all His kind hand was
always open It was a gracious fate which sent him to rescue
widows and captives Whert could they have had a champion more
chivalrous, a protector more loving an^ tender?

“ I write down his name m my little book, amongst those of others
dearly loved who, too, have been summoned henre And so w< meet
and part , we struggle and succeed , or we fail and drop unknown
on the way. As we leave the fond mother’s knee, the rough trials of
childhood and boyhood begin , and then manhood is upon us, and
the battle of life, with its chances, perils, wounds, defeat, distinctions.
And Fort William guns are saluting in one man's honour, while the
troops are finng the last volleys over the other’s grave — over the
grave of the brave, the gentle, the faithful Christian soldier ”

242 Reflections on the Government of Wild Tribes

That was the true description of Sir Richmond Shakespear. With
regard to his son, my cousin, whom he had known for a very long ume,
he first knew him when he went out to India in the Canadian Regiment
He afterwards started on the career which Sir Bampfylde Fuller had
described, and which he need not go through again The last time he
saw him he was in hospital, and he wished to congratulate him on being
out and about again Many of them, old civilians, wished they could
have been in the ranks of those people long past the age of service, who
had served, as Colonel Shakespear did, during the late war (Hear,
hear ) They could all congratulate themselves that he had been able to
come forward and read them such an excellent paper He was a chip of
the old block He and his father before him had advanced the prestige
of the Indian administrator

The Chairman Ladies and gentlemen, now I come to the last thing
on the agenda, “ The chairman closing the meeting and I beg to close it
The proceedings then terminated with a hearty vote of thanks to the
Chairman for presiding

The following note has been received from Colonel Shakespear
“ Sir Bampfylde Fuller, in his remarks after the reading of my paper on
15th inst , gave me all the credit of subduing and civilizing the Lushais
I regret that I did not in my remarks after the discussion point out that,
though as regards the South I ushai Hills I may fairly claim to have done
the bulk of the work, as regards the Northern Hills the subjugation had
been completed before I was sent there The work done by Captain
Brown, the first Political Officer — who was killed there — by the great
McCabe by the late Mr Davis and by Mr Porteous bad overcome all
resistance and when I took over in 1897 the combined North and South
Lushai Hills I had only to concern myself with problems of development
I would not like to be considered ungrateful to those the fruits of whose
labours I was privileged to reap

243

THE FRIENDS OF INDIA, WISE AND
OTHERWISE

By F. R. Scatcherd

Members of the East India Association will know that 1
have been announced to speak on “ India and her Friends ”
for nearly two years, and I have hitherto refrained, hoping
someone else would raise a protesting voice against the
unwise, and leave me free to speak only of the wise friends
of India, many of whom are to be found in this Associa-
tion of which I have the honour to be a member, and
without whose guidance and counsel I could not have
carried on the work of editing the Astatic Review during
its Editor’s absence in khaki. He is now back at his post
again, but I have gladly accepted the invitation to remain
on the editorial committee, and here and now 1 desire to
thank all those who bore with my unaccustomed but
gladly rendered service during a stressful period. Especially
do I thank Mr. Leitner, Dr. Pollen, and Mr. Pennington.

I do not apologize for the lack of form in this paper
(it is not a literary effort), nor for its lengthy quotations,
necessitated by its very nature and object, that of dotting a
few I’s and crossing a few T’s for certain perverse folk
who are always reversing the process.

Part I

It has been my good fortune to come into touch with
many of the social leaders and reformers of the day. Two
of the most ardent have also been friends of India, working
for what they no doubt believe to be the best interests of
that country. Yet I am bound to regard them as typical
examples of the unwise friend.

I allude to Mr. H. M. Hyndman, the Father of British

244 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

Socialism, the veteran lecturer, writer and reformer, and to
Mrs Besant, the successor of Madame Blavatsky, and one
of the foremost of women orators Neither one nor the
other will attribute to me any personal motive for directing
attention to the statements both have been, and are, making
in the press and on the platform

I will pass over the tragic years of the war , I will
draw a veil over the effect produced on the international
mind by such statements how they formed a target for
cleverly timed, well-directed attacks upon British honour,
British integrity, British good faith How at national and
international congresses my lack of statistic and economic
facts kept me speechless during such broadsides, and
paralyzed action in what was at times an almost single-
handed conflict against the enemies of the sacred cause of
true liberty and democratic freedom And when I was
furnished with the necessary truth to meet the untruth,
a hearing was invariably refused by those very people who
claimed to stand for the rights of minorities and of free
speech

You will believe me that it is with no light heart that I
criticize thus a personal and esteemed friend like Mr
Hyndman whose services during the war have been
invaluable, and whose knowledge of transport and shipping,
if put to use, might have saved the country millions But
after his eloquence at Northampton* carried the resolution
in favour of the “emancipation ’ of India, involving the
speedy exit of all ‘ carpet-baggers and sun-dried bureau-
crats/' I can hesitate no longer, because these misstate-
ments and distortions gne a handle to those reactionary
forces which would delay the progress of much-needed
reform in India

That I may not do Mr Hyndman injustice, I will confine
myself to statements taken from his article " British
Misrule in India,’ published in Justice , August 14, 1919, or
other writings

* National Socialist Congress, August, 1919

The Friends of India, Wise and Otherwise 245

These so-called friends of India are saying, in so many
words, that “ not even the crimes of which Prussianized
Germany has been guilty transcend in infamy the cold
economic and social rum which we ourselves deliberately
inflict upon the inhabitants of the vast Empire of Hindu-
stan ’ (“British Misrule in India,’ Justice , August 14
1919)

No one at all familiar with the history of British India
would deny that our record is stained with many a deed
that might not unfairly be called “ infamous , but the
question of importance here is whether we have “deliber-
ately brought economic and social rum on its inhabitants
(The word ' deliberately must I suppose, mean oi
malice aforethought , yet even Mr Hyndman could hardly
mean that)

Is it even true that we have inflicted ‘ economic and
social ruin on the inhabitants of British 1 ndia, deliberately
or otherwise ? Mr Hyndman his, as he says, been point
ing this out lor more than forty years, and rtpeats that we
have been

‘draining out of British India each year an amount equal
to considerably more than ^30,000 000 without commercial
return ,

and this from a country whose

“agricultural population is already so poor that its annual
production does not exceed 15s a head

“No matter, he proceeds, “what benefits we might
confer in other directions (and having studied the subject
carefully for nearly fifty years, he can detect extremely
few), this drain of produce from the poverty stricken ryots
ts a crime of the first magnitude (“ British Misrule in
India,” Justice, August 14, 1919)

One would be inclined to pgiee if the facts were as
stated, but how does Mr Hyndman arrive at his 15s
a head as the value of the gross produce of British India ?

The population of British India in 19 11 is given as
24.4 million odd , so that the value of the average gross

246 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

produce, according to Mr. Hyndman, would be 183,000,000
sterling, and yet in the year 1910-11 there were actually
exported goods to the value of ^13 7,000,000, and in
1 91 1- 1 2 ^10, 000, 000 worth more, leavingabout ^40,000,000
tor the subsistence of the whole population This seems to
be a reductio ad absurdum , but no doubt some of the
exports came from Native States

It will be seen from Leaflet No. XXIX of the East
India Association (“Truths about India,” p 165) that
Mr. Hyndmans figures about the “drain ’ have already
been challenged, and that he has never thought fit to
explain them This new figure seems to require even more
explanation, and it may be worth while once more to draw
public attention to the refutation of his indictment published
so long ago as 1912

“ Since the issue of the second edition of our Leaflet
No I, dealing with the alleged dram from India, Mr
Hyndman has, at p 419 of his autobiography, thought
proper to reiterate his favourite indictment to the effect
that ‘we dram out of India upwards of ^30,000,000 a
)ear,' without any commercial return whatever, and this
terrible extortion of wealth by way of economic tribute is
the chief cause of the impoverishment of the 240 million
inhabitants of British terutory, and the consequent famine
and plague from which they suffer

“ This charge was repeated in a letter to The Times, and
it was with reluctance that the leading journal published a
letter in reply asking for the facts and figures on which the
indictment was based

“ As no answer, direct or indirect, has been accorded
to this challenge to produce proofs, and as Mr Hyndman
declines to examine and, if necessary, correct the figures
given in our Leaflet, all that can be done is to discuss his
figures as they stand. He refuses to give or even to
discuss details of the home charges , but in his * Rum of
India by British Rule (being the report of the Social
Democratic Federation, dated 1907), he specified ‘pensions,
interest, home charges, dividends and remittances to the
capitalist and landlord classes with their hangers-on,’ as the
component parts of his ,£30,000,000, and these agree
pretty fairly with the details given in our Leaflet No. I,

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 247

from which it appears that about half the drain (according
to our view, or one-third according to his) consists of
interest on money borrowed at, say, 3J per cent m order
to increase the produce of the land in India tenfold by
irrigation, and to provide her with railways

“ Some Indian critics object to railways as draining away
the produce of the country , but it seems from p 8 of the
paper alluded to above that Mr Hyndman admits the
benefit India has derived from railways, and that benefit
is surely a real ‘ commercial return’ for the money borrowed
on extraordinarily easy terms, just as the enormous increase
of wealth due to irrigation certainly is

“ The rest of the home charges must be defended on
different grounds as the unavoidable cost of a foreign
government, but then it can easily be contended that, even
admitting this ‘ drain, the Government of India is still the
most economic of civilized* governments when what it does
for the country is fairlv considered The lamentable
poverty of India may be admitted , every country is poor
which depends entirely on agriculture , but poverty is a
comparative term, and even Mr Digby had to admit that
60 millions, or about one-sixth of the population, were
tolerably * prosperous It may be doubted if a much larger
proportion in any country could be fairly so described ,
and, in many ways, poverty in India is not as cruel as for
instance, in Russia where millions suffer from famine of
which we hear little or nothing

“ But if there is a drain out there is also a dram in , and
we should like someone to calculate the drain of wealth
into India without commercial return and then strike a
balance

“The following facts show that the ‘dratn in must be
considerable, and should not be lightly disregarded

“‘During the last seventy years India has absorbed
2,250 million ounces of silver, or more than one-third of
the whole worlds supply during that period In the last
decade she absorbed 720 million out of 1,826 million ounces
produced in the whole world’ (Mr Sarma on p 524 of
the Hindustan Review for December, 1911). Now 720
out of 1,820 is nearly 40 per cent Is this a proof of
increasing poverty ? It does not, of course, prove increasing
prosperity among the lower orders, but surely some of this
inrush must filter down to some of the workers and go to
raise wages to the rate to which everybody (except,
perhaps, Mr Hyndman) knows they have risen since he

* See Whitaker s Almanack for 1910

248 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

so confidently predicted the ‘bankruptcy of India' in
1878 That such bankruptcy is still very remote is shown
by the facts noticed recently in a leading article in The
Times , under the heading ‘A Romance of an Indian Port’
(Karachi), and by the fact that India exported last year
more wheat than was exported from any other country in
the world ’

That India is still equally absorbent, not only of silver
but of gold, is proved by recent statements in the press

“ What is the cause of the silver shortage ? asks the
Daily Lxpress , August 27, 1919, and proceeds thus to
answer the question

“ The price of silver went ahead still further yesterday,
rising -Jd an ounce to 6i]d, the highest quotation since
1867

‘ The price of silver has been going up and up ’

‘ The cause is undoubtedly the persistent hoarding
going on all over the world This is particularly the case
in India, where it is stated that since the war began the
natives ha\e hoarded something like ^20,000,000 worth
of silver

Curiously enough in Ike Times of October 23, 1919
Dr Gilbert Shter points out that

Since january 1, 1916, India has coined 1,300 million
silver rupees, besides greatly inflating the paper currency,
and has absorbed much more silver than all the mines of
the world have produced in the same penod ’

* ‘ Gold Dram on South Africa’ is the heading of a
telegram from Johannesburg last September Details
regarding the heavy export of British and Kruger
sovereigns to India by Grteh and Indian speculators show
that ^1000 in gold in Delagoa Bay is worth ,£1,060 in
Union banknotes, the sovereign in India being worth 23s
to 26s

“ Many thousands of pounds are exported daily through
Delagoa One Indian drew his bank balance of ,£14,000
in gold for this purpose The Union has become so short
of sovereigns that the traffic has been stopped — Exchange.”

It may be asked, why refer to these oft-refuted fallacies ?
But one is forced to do so, as Mr Hyndman is quoted by

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 249

reformers and also agitators throughout the world, and
returns to the charge in his interesting book, “ The
Awakening of Asia, in which he writes as if nothing had
happened in the last forty years, and calmly ignores every
attempt to present the truth about India in general, and
himself in particular His statements are so characteristic
of extremist critics of the British Administration that it
seems desirable to deal with them in some detail

He seems almost to regret the failure of the Mutiny ,
and, though speaking of it as a 4 national rising” inspired
by hostility to English rule he is yet constrained to explain
its failure by the fact that the ‘ agricultural population over
the greater part of India did not sympathize ‘sufficiently’
with the revolt to join in ’ — as much perhaps, as he seems
to think they ought to have sympathized !

He would not, I fear admit that the ryots generally —
that is, three-fourths of the population — not only took no
interest m the so called rebellion but were often ready to
shelter Europeans whenever they dared Doubtless if the
sepoys had been successful, the ryots would have accepted
their rule or whatever sort of rule emerged from the welter,
with their usual philosophy and sound common sense ,
they “ let the legions thunder past and wc nt on with their
business of growing food

On p 21 1* Mr Hyndman says the rulers — 1 e , the
District Officers — keep as far aloof from the people
they govern as possible On this point I consulted Mr
Pennington, and this is what he said

I cannot answer for all the civilians in India, and
possibly some of them are almost as exclusive as some of
our high-caste Indian assistants but having been a district
officer for nearly twenty years I can say with confidence
that in Madras the statement is dimply untrue , and to
speak of civilians generally as ‘ unsympathetic carpet-
baggers is ludicrous

“ Even the common gibe (which he adopts and circu-
lates) that competition-wallahs generally ‘lack nowadays

* “ The Awakening of Asia ’

VOL. XVI

R

250 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

that indescribable quality of the sahib or gentleman,' is
far too sweeping- Many of them are members of old
Anglo-Indian families, and even those who have risen
from the ranks (like Sir Thomas Munro) have been
amongst the most successful and popular officials we have
ever had.

" Mr. Hyndman does not give the names of the wit-
nesses he cites on pp. 212 and 214, but whoever the last
may be, it is not true that Englishmen in Madras ' live
totally estranged/ etc. ; though, of course, it is true that
they cannot often even yet mix socially with Indian ladies ;
but that a vast majority of the better sort of Europeans
are on excellent terms with most of the Indians they meet
in office and on business in Madras, at any rate, is
absolutely certain.

" Mr. Hyndman makes a great deal more of the Guikwar
incident at the Durbar than it deserves. Personally I
believe it is capable of explanation, and I am sure the
Guikwar is much too shrewd and well-mannered a man to
be deliberately guilty of stupid rudeness.

" One might object as much as Mr. Hyndman to the
‘loan’ of 100 millions on account of the war ; but to say
that India was ' compelled ’ to lend the money, when it was
proposed by a non-official member of the Viceroy’s Council,
and voted unanimously in the first enthusiasm of the war, is
a very unfair way of looking at the transaction/'

It would take too long to discuss Free Trade as it
affects India ; it is evident Mr. Hyndman has either never
read Mr. McMinn’s monumental paper on “ The Wealth
and Progress of India/’ or even Sir Arundel Arundel’s and
Sir Raymond West’s valuable contributions to the dis-
cussion, or, more suo , prefers to ignore them all.

Nor can one discuss education at great length ; but his
figures on p. 218 are hopelessly wrong at the present time,
and it does not appear where he found them.

The simple arithmetic of Indian education as given in
the last Statistical Abstract shows that there were nearly
8 million children under some sort of instruction in 1915-16,
and that they cost about 7^ millions sterling, or about fi
a head ; so that to educate the whole population of a
age would cost at least 80 millions, and

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 251

would require 2 or 3 million teachers Then again,

8 millions sterling spread over 240 millions would mean
thirty persons for each ^*1, or 8d a head instead of a id
as given on p 218 , and 3J per cent of the population
are under instruction, not 1 9, as stated

Mr Hyndman goes on to say that the 4 improvement
(I suppose in numbers and amount spent) is ‘ almost
nominal ’ Yet the same report shows that the amount
spent has nearly doubled in the ten years from 1906-7 to
1915-16 whilst the number under instruction has increased
from 4 946,240 to 7,275 504

It is difficult to see what can be the object of publishing
such foolishly erroneous statements since the veriest tyro
can discover their inaccuracy Yet they are repeated
ad nauseam by self constituted critics of Indian affairs — eg
Mr S Satiyamurti only the other day spoke of the grant
for education as 4^ instead of 7J millions

Whatever may be thought of our record in education, n
is abundantly clear, as has already been said that the
Indian Government is still the cheapest civilized govern
nv nt in the world (excluding China) considering what it
does for the people (See 4 Truths about India pp
99 160, and 162 )

Mr Hyndman says that the official class has always
pretended th it the inhabitants of Hindustan are quite in
capable of governing themselves but that is not exactly
what the officials say

It is not a question of governing themselves at home or
even in local affairs but of carrying on the government of
an immense continent full of all sorts of jarring elements —
a very different business from that of governing any homo
geneous colony — and the example of the successful adminis
tration of many 4 protected Irdian States always under
the watchful care of the Government, is no criterion of
what would happen if the Government of India were
intrusted to the uncontrolled domination of Indian Ad-
ministrators however able and conscientious they might be

252 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

Mr. Hyndman, indeed, tells us that the great majority
of the cultivators do not agree with our view of Indian
administration, and that the worst rule of Indians by their
own people is preferred to the best management of
foreigners. This may be so, but proof of the statement is
lacking, and when he goes further and asserts that annexa-
tion to the British Empire in India has never been
welcomed by “the people,” he is on much more doubtful
ground. He seems to have forgotten the outcry that was
raised when it was proposed to hand back Berar to the rule
of the Nizam.

Part II

Those who are so fond of insisting on the undoubted
poverty of the masses in India as a stick wherewith to
beat the English Government never, so far as I know,
remind people that the circumstances of the Indian
peasant are in many ways very different from those of the
Westerner.

They never, I think, draw attention to the plain fact
that the Indian villager generally pays no rent , an item in
the Englishman’s budget which costs almost as much in
our great towns as the very inadequate food they can
afford to buy ; and that again, even in our own country, is
far less than they ought to have, though they may not
often be allowed to die of actual starvation. Nor, in the
south of India at any rate, do they suffer from the cold as
they do in this country.

The mass of the people in every country is miserably poor.
Even in England an enormous majority die “paupers.”*

Miss Rathborn, a lady of great experience and intelli-
gence, declares that “ widows and their children are in
many parishes kept (under our system of out-relief) in a
state of chronic starvation” (“Widows’ Pensions,” p. 9).

The truth is that we know very little of how the poor
live anywhere.

* /.«., live from hand to mouth, and die without property. Messrs.
Booth and Rowntree state that about 30 per cent, (instead of 40 per cent .
as in India) suffer from insufficient nutrition.

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 253

Mrs. Besant and her Indian friends have been giving
addresses all over the country. Mr. Wadia has been
among the speakers To Mr Wadia, as a Parsee, one or
two questions might be put He said at Letchworth
(and Mrs Besant has repeated the statement) that “ India,
from being the richest country in the world, has become,
under British rule , the poorest ”

Now the Parsees were in India centuries before the
British

Were they, in those pre-British days, the wealthiest
people in the world (or even in India) 7 and are they now
the poorest 7

If they are now among the wealthiest is that in spite of
British rule, or in consequence of it, or why 7

Can he, as a Parsee, estimate the commercial value to
the Parsees of the hundred years of peace they have
enjoyed under British rule in a country which had never
known abiding peace for at least seven or eight hundred
years 7

Does Mr Wadia remember the history of Thuggee 7
and was the strangling “ noose of the Thug ” (to quote
Mrs Besant) good for commerce 7 or was it not a good
thing the British suppressed it 7 Mrs Besant, speaking at
Letchworth, thought she had proved her statement that
India zvas the richest country in the world before the
armal of the British , by referring to the fact that it used
to absorb most of the gold of the world

When it was pointed out that some years ago it was
estimated that India still absorbed 40 per cent of all the
gold produced in the world, or more than double her
hare in proportion to her population, Mrs. Besant replied
to the effect that that “ wealth ” did not go to the poor
peasant, but to the English exploiters of Indias riches
Do she and Mr. Wadia consider that in pre-British
days wealth used to go to the working classes, the
" untouchables,” for instance 7 and that none of the wealth
of India now goes to the Parsees and other Indian
merchants and lawyers 7

254 7 ^ Friends of India , Otherwise

As to the incidence of the Land Revenue, we under-
stood Mrs. Besant to say that it sometimes amounted to
50 per cent, of the gross produce.

This might be so in some cases where the crop partly
failed and the full rent was exacted. With due respect to
her allegation, however, we must suppose that Mrs. Besant
really meant the net produce, because that is the basis
of the assessment in Madras.

But, even so, has she observed that the Land Revenue
of the whole of India has frequently of late years, amounted
to less than one-eighth of the value of the surplus produce
actually exported ? and that in the Congress organ India
it was reported, as the result of a number of surveys by
Indian students under the surpervision of Dr. Slater,
Professor of Economics in Madras, that the Land
Revenue in those villages amounted to about 5 per cent,
of the gross produce ?

Is she aware that the average assessment per acre all
over India, inclusive of the charge for water which some-
times increases the value of land far more than a hundred-
fold, is just is. 8d. an acre and is. 8d. a head? Pure
sand without water will produce nothing. Irrigate it, and
you will soon reap two tons of rice to the acre.

Has she calculated the amount spent in the shape of
fees paid to lawyers every year ? and does she know that
it has been estimated at 25 millions sterling, or more than
the whole Land Revenue which is said to be so oppressive ?

Does she know how much is spent upon the temples ?
Mr. Pennington says he found, when he was in India
ten years ago, that about twenty lakhs of rupees — say
^130,000 — were being spent on the repair of one temple,
certainly a very large one, at Rameswaram. This wealthy
country would think twice before spending even £ 100,000
on repairing St. Paul’s ; but then we are a more material-
istic people, and certainly not so lavish in some ways
— e.g marriages.

It is most misleading to compare (as Mr. Wadia does)

The Friends of India , Wtse and Otherwise 255

the £2 a head average income with the average of any
Western nation , and, as Dr Gilbert Slater shows, that
average was probably an under-estimate even when it was
made, and ought now to be about ^5, at any rate in
Madras There is of course, a much larger proportion
than elsewhere of extremely poor people in India, where
probably at least 70 per cent of the whole population are
agriculturists who are everywhere badly paid , but, as
often pointed out, in India agricultural labourers are
largely paid in kind, and the rise and fall of prices affect
them but slightly

Mr. Wadia’s attention might pi ofitably be directed to the
words of an authority whom he is bound to respect
India* the organ of the Indian National Congress, in an
important article dealing with the economic conditions of
“ Some South Indian Villages, ’ falls foul of just such
persons as is Mr Wadia the political reformer’ who
will take any economic argument that comes his way and
14 will tell a British audience that the average Indian
income is under £2 per annum

India characterizes this statement as to the average
income as incredible to the point of stupefaction to
the British hearer, and protests that its effect may lead to
the supposition that the Indians are primitive savages
This attempt to measure the situation 111 terms of money,
is most dangerous, says India , and it adduces Professor
Slaters conclusions as to the justice of stating the income
of the people in the form of the commodities they can afforu
to consume

The cost of a two-roomed house is an item of typical
value in this respect ( vide p 217 of Professor Slaters
book) Beyond the labour of the tenant and his wife the
total cost of the house was only 13 T rupees 5 annas

Well may India exclaim as to the sighs of envy that
might be drawn by “ house-famined England

India , August 19, 1919

2 $6 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

For Mr Wadia’s benefit a few more statements may be
summarized from this same article

The food statistics of the Agricultural Department of
the Madras Presidency show that the land produced enough
gram to allow each person 24 ounces per day Hence
other causes than insufficient production enter into the
under-nutrition of the people

On the other hand, the milk-supply worked out at less
than one gallon per head per annum and nearly all of that
was known to be consumed by adult Brahmins The
purchase and wearing of jewellery and ornaments of gold
and silver are explained as being not only a method of
elementary banking and investment but a serious method
of inducing confidence in creditors'

An American millionaire once told the writer that his
only ground of complaint against his wife was her refusal
to wenr sufficiently expensive clothing and jewellery at the
time of those crises whtn he specially desired her to look
lavish so perh ips the Indian villager is no cruder than the
rest of us in his method of creating a feeling ol security

‘ The excessive fragmentation of holdings in India seems
even more complicated thin is the case here Instances
are given of a m in holding plots of land surrounded by
the land of others so tiny tbit a plough will not even
rest upon them and Professor Slater goes so far as to
suggest legislation upon tht lines ol the English Enclosure
Acts

# * , c *

1 As to the incidence of the Land Revenue, these detailed
studies and the conclusions deducible seem in grave conflict
with the usually accepted Mews upon the subject The
Land Revenue is put as low as 3% per cent of the gross
agricultural produce A strong case is however, made
out, and it appears the only method of disproving it is to
collect and collate more and yet more information.”

According to our critics India was on the verge of bank-
ruptcy forty years ago, and is so still in spite of all evidence
to the contrary I oppose to them the opinion of Sir

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 257

Alfred Chatterton, whom 1 met some time ago, when he
kindly gave me permission to quote from a letter of his
Sir Alfred Chatterton, who knows what he is talking about,
says that handloom weavers were never so prosperous
He writes

“ I am going back to India, so that I am afraid I have
no time at present to deal with the misrepresentations of
the Industrial Commission which are being circulated with
a view to create political capital In no part of the Report,
unless it be in the Pandit’s minute of dissent, is there any-
thing that could be taken to indicate that the Commission
were of opinion that ‘ from a great industrial country
distinguished for artistic workmanship it has become a
poverty stricken land '

‘ In the chapters on cottage industries the following
occurs ‘ There is no real ground for the belief that they
are generally in a decadent condition’ In the same
chapter it is stated that the hand loom industry turns over
50 crores of rupees a year and personally I hold the
opinion, based on a long study of the industry, that it was
never so flourishing as it is to day The enormous
quantities of brass copper md aluminium absorbed by
India tell a different tale from that promulgated so steadily
by the critics of Indian administration

Then take the evidence of Capt Petavel, an economist
of European reputation, and now Lecturer on Rcconstruc
tion to the University of Calcutta, who cautiously says the
“economic future ” (of India) is ‘ one of hope

Mr Hyndman has probably never seen Capt Petavel’s
essay on the subject or even his five lectures delivered
before the University of Calcutta entitled Man and
Machine Power which were printed and published by
that University at the instance of Sir Asutosh Mookerjee,
csi„ and circulated to every leading University in the
world Mrs Besant and her friends must have heard of
him, even if Mr Hyndman has no.

Mr Hyndman Mrs Besant and her friends, as far as
there is any truth in their statements, are still living in the
last century

Sir Stanley Reed, who is described by the Daily Herald

258 The Frunds of India, Wise and Otherwise

as “ the very liberal editor of the Times of Indus," states
that conditions in India have been completely revolutionized
since he went out He says

“In 1897, India was poor and the population was subject
to famine and unemployment Now every industry is short
of labour There has been a marked change m the
financial power of India and an enormous change in the
whole social outlook There was a desire for a higher
standard of living and education, and for a higher standard
of social surroundings There was a wish among Indians
for a larger share m the government of their own country —
not for selfish ends Indians in every walk of life wished
that India should take her full stature amongst the
‘ Dominions of the Empire

It is in the desire to hasten that day that I have ventured
to put these few remarks before you

These “other than wise friends of India are indeed
builders of castles in the air of thi free and prosperous
India that will arise, when India shall become once more
the arbiter of her own destiny But these same castle-
builders are also the fabricators of such a tissue of half
truths of facts torn from their context so as to comey
actual untruth that one is forced to be very doubtful as
to the stability of an edifice erected upon such slender
foundations

Such people never face side-issues They are of those
who imagined, if Great Britain betrayed her trust with
regard to Russia that Germany and others would respect
Russus attempt to work out her own salvation f Their
shibboleth is as old as that of Cain the traditional first
murderer When jou point out that the premature with
drawal of British control, faulty though it may be, would leave
India a prey to more merciless exploitation, they cry, “ What
is that to us ? Are we our brothers keeper and this in
the name of peace freedom, and human brotherhood 1

By all means let us build castles in the air. As
Thoreau has said, that is where they should be But in
the name of sanity and common sense let the foundations

The Friends of India, IVise and Otherwise 259

be truly laid, foursquare with the eternal principles of
Justice and Truth

Part III

Few people in this country are aware of the circum-
stances which induced, one might almost say " compelled,”
Mrs Besant’s meteoric entry on the stage of politics
The following extracts are from the late Dr Nairs book
“The Evolution of Mrs Besant, which is full of original
evidence and which should be read, unpleasant as it is, by
everyone who desires to understand Mrs Besant and
the real genesis of the extremist form of Home Rule
agitation in India

I met Dr Nair here in London shortly before his death
and was impressed with his sincerity of purpose and the
sense of duty uhich impelled him to bring forward the
painful evidence adduced in the volume from which the
following resume is taken Only redundancies are omitted,
and the words are those of Dr Nair all the wav thiough

‘ The effect of the lawsuits in which she had been
involved was to render the Theosophtcal Society practically
useless as an advertising medium for Mrs Besant.

“ The Theosophical Society had been exceedingly re-
actionary on most social questions connected with the
Hindu community, with the one exception of early
marriage Mrs Besant had occupied herself with defend-
ing observances even many Hindus had given up as hope-
less to defend But when she started the social reform
movement within the Theosophical Society, she tried to
capture as many followers as possible

“ Another movement started by Mrs Besant was to
establish a rival institution to the Young Men’s Christian
Association Mrs. Besant started a Young Mens Indian
Association But these were only preliminaries to her
ultimate objective, which was to capture the Indian
politicians and enrol them as her worshippers.’

Dr Nair here quotes from an article by Mr Lovat
Fraser in the Edinburgh Review as follows

* See Note at end of discussion

260 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

“She exalted Indian spiritual ideals at the expense of
Western materialism, which is not a difficult process , and
by gulling the unthinking and the credulous with stories of
a golden age of India, which never existed , she managed to
attract a fairly large following ”

Dr. Nair proceeds

“She praised e\erythmg Indian and ran down every-
thing European till the Indians stood revealed as so many
martyrs suffering untold tyrannies at the hands of the
British barbarians She told the Indians at a conference
at Chittore that, being a white woman, she could say and
do things which the Indians themselves could not say and
do, and could thus undertake a vigorous political agitation
on behalf of the Indians I he idea of a white woman,
immune from the rigours of Government action under-
taking all the risks while the Brahmins reaped all the
revv mis was an arrangement which suited the peculiarly
selfish instincts of the Madrasi Brahmin

“ It also suited Mis Besant She knew that the risks
she ran were \er\ little, while the programme sketched
out opened up a m igmfice nt avenue for self advertisement
Thus w is she hunched on her politic d career — the knight
errant who was to ride abroad redressing Indian wrongs,
and receiving the horn ige and adoration of the ‘down-
trodden Indians who n it was her speci d privilege to lift
up to the u rightful position of citizens of the British
Empire

Armed with the neeessary weapon ol political warfare,
a daily mwspaper, she launched on that campaign which
was to make Indians free and herself the uncrowned queen
of India

“ Mrs Bes mts first big move in Indian politics was to
bring about a union between the Extremists and Moderates
ol the National Congress , in other words, she wanted the
active co-operation of Mr B C 1 llak and his followers in
her Indian political campaign Her first attempt in this
direction failed , and following this failure we find in the
columns of New India a threat that if the Congress still
remained in a condition of masterly inactivity, it would be
well for joung people to take action, not in opposition
to the Congress, which must always be regarded as the
head of political activities m India, but as supplementing
its work in a held which it does not wish to occupy at
present practically an ultimatum to the Congress from

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 261

Mrs. Besant to say that ‘if the Congress will not take up
Home Rule, I shall.’

“ Then followed in New India a series of articles on the
‘Resurrection of Asia, and it claimed that India should be
given Home Rule as a sort of defensive measure against
the advance of China These articles foreshadowed the
development of China as a great military power with the
consequent danger to India of a Chinese invasion New
India pleaded that India should be enabled to stand on her
own feet in order to repel the Chinese invasion

“Then, on August 3, 1915, New India expressed the
opinion that the people of India should agitate for self-
government and should fight for freedom, exclaiming,
‘Who will join hands with us ■ > ’

“On August 17, 1915, New India proclaimed that in
the reconstruction of the Empire lay the opportunity of
India for freedom, and on August 21 ' A Britisher’ wrote
in New India that —

“‘The chief hindrance to the acquirement of self-
government for the Motherland is not its Rulers, not
the Anglo-Indian press , it is the inactivity the
torpidity, the painful indifference of the Indians
themselves

“On September 7, 1915, New India announced that
Mrs Besant had gone to Bombay to ascertain Sir
Pherozeshah Mehtas views on the political situation, in
other words, to discuss with him the question of Home
Rule

* On September 13 she gave an interview to an
Associated Press representative in Bombay, when she
talked of India s right to self-government, and said that
after the Congress had formulated a scheme which she
should like to call Home Rule for India, the country will
be stirred on behalf of it

‘ On September 1 5 she wrote on the Congress and
self-government and advised Sir S P Sinha, the President
of the Congress of 1915, to claim Swaraj

“ There was an attack on Sir Pherozeshah Mehta m
which she said that the gentleman had so long dominated
Bombay that it was doubtful if anyone else there had the
courage to lead, while he himself was too ill to be depended
upon , that a vigorous policy was above all things wanted in
the Bombay Congress of 1915, and that up till then
Bombay had given no sign of preparing anything in the
way of a Home Rule scheme

262 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

“On September 25, 1915, the Home Rule League was
bom with Home Rule for India as its only object

“ At first it was announced that Mr Dadabhai Naoroji
was the President of the League, but that venerable
gentleman promptly disclaimed any connection with the
newly born organization

“ Sir Pherozeshah Mehta died in November, 1915, and
almost the last obstacle which stood m the way of the
capture of the National Congress by the Home Rulers was
thus removed

Home Ruk activities continued under the energetic
guidance of Mrs Besant

“ What took pi ice at the Bombay conference presided
over by Sir S P Sinha how he checkmated the impulsive
eagerness of Mrs Besant to get the Congress committed
to the Home Rule propaganda are well known to Indian
politicians

But ifurth< Congress of 1915 with the semi-detach-
ment of Sir S P Sinha from Congress activities, Mrs
Besant made more headway With the deaths of Mr
Gokhale and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, with the partial
retirement of Sir S P Sinha there was hardly an old
Congress leader who could stand up md fight the increasing
agitation for catastrophic changes Moderate Congress
leaders like the snakes in Ireland committed political
suicide to save themselves from destruction

The Congress of 1916 under an old and respectable
figurehead was capture d by the Besantine clique The
increased irritation felt in certain Muhammedan quarters,
mainly due to certain events which were developing in the
Moslem world-politics, threw them into the lap of Besantine
politicians and since then we have had the spectacle of the
so called Congress and Moslem League posing as the
representatives of the whole of India

4 Mrs Besant who is supposed to have received a
mandate from this ill-assorted combination of the Congress
and Moslem League, went full steam ahead Our readers
need not be reminded of the fury and vigour of her
political activities in this Presidency in the year 1917
With the increase in the vigour of her political agitation,
the courage of the Madras Government seemed to ooze
out 1 he more diplomatic the Madras Government
became, the more dramatic became the political situation
created by Mrs Besant She seemed to expect deporta-
tion or internment , but the Madras Government moved
not.

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 263

“ She published her farewell address to the people of the
Madras Presidency, wrote her last Will and Testament,
and stood ready for her exit from the political stage, but
the Madras Government would not let the curtain down
The situation was ludicrous The agitation was resumed
and things went on for some time longer, when, to the
amazement of a few and to the amusement of all, the
Madras Government proceeded against Mrs Besant under
the Press Act What an anticlimax that Press Act
prosecution was 1

“ Then later came her internment As a prelude, His
Excellency the Governor came down from the hills and
granted an interview to Mrs Besant at Government House,
Mount Road Nothing could have been better from Mrs
Besants point of view The interview was exceedingly
dramatic, and Mrs Besant walked out of Government
House like a tragedy queen injuied and oppressed by a
cruelly autocratic Government

“We have heard that British politicians waxed eloquent
on English platforms about the cruelty of making Mrs
Besant rot in jail vvnik the High Priestess of Home Rule
went comfortably up to the queen of hill stations drove
in her own motor car from the railway station to her
bungalow and there in the company of her own political
colleagues lay reclining on the hills like gods together
nursing her grievances against the Madras Government
and posing as a martyr for all India to admire and weep
over while her followers went all over the country, as if to
say, ‘ If you have tears prepare to shed them now *

The interned queen held durbars at Gulistan with the
Home Rule Hag floating outside waving its challenge to
the Madras Government to come and haul it down if they
dared

“ Mrs Besant, going through the precautionary measure
of internment used it as an advertisement, ind with such
effect that the Viceroy forthwith took her as a partner in
the creation of a calm political atmosphere for the special
benefit of the Secretary of State

How she accomplished this task and what sort of calm
political atmosphere was the result are matters of common
knowledge.

“ We have a shrewd suspicion that she has scored both
over the Madras Government and the Government of
India and that she has come out of her internment stronger
than when she went in She has succeeded in converting
the Theosophical Society, which was originally a religious

264 Tkt Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

society, into a political one. In a letter to the Government
of Madras she said

“ ‘The Theosophical Society cannot identify itself
with any special creed, religious, social, or political ,
but it can and ought to stand for the sacred right of
free speech for all opinions which do not incite crime,
and can see that His Excellency s instinctive attack on
religious liberty shows the true spirit of autocracy and
hatred of all freedom

‘“It has therefore allied itself in this struggle in
entente cordiale with the National Congress, the
Moslem League, and the Home Rule League in one
solid body united in resistance to autocracy and in
defence of the liberty of the people, and I, as President
of the T heosophical Sock t), will conclude no separate
peace ’

Mrs Besant may consider with pardonable pride that
her election as President of the Indian National Congress of
1 9 1 7 was a great personal triumph She entered the art na of
Indian politics only in 1914 and within three years to have
been able to wear the in irtyrs crown and to win the blue
ribbon of native Indian politics is a record in political
progress

“ This crowning succt ss of Mrs Besant s brief Indian
political career was brought about by methods hitherto
foreign to the Indian National Congress To pack the
reception committee with new members whose subscriptions
were paid by anonymous patron j who remained behind the
screen and pulled tin wires is more tne method of
Tammany Hall than of the Indian National Congress
‘ But the Congress whose Presidentship she secured by
such means was < nl> the ghost of the Indian National
Congress, which by years of steady work earned on with
moderation and sagacity, with a single eye for India’s
political advancement, had at last secured recognition as the
common political platform for educated India To attatn
this position the Congress had, with considerable difficulty^
to purge itself of disruptive elements in Indian politics
‘ To bring back these forces of political extremism and
disorder, and to drive out the more sober and steadying
influences which have been the making of the Indian
National Congress, was the mam work of Mrs Besant
‘‘With the ascendancy of Mrs Besant in the control of
the Indian National Congress, its national and representa-
tive character disappeared The work that the leaders of

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 265

the Indian National Movement did in thirty years Mrs
Besant has undone in three She has successfully played
the part of the ‘ Pied Piper,’ and enticed the schoolboys to
follow her as a tumultuous, shouting crowd The older
Indian politicians, who had hitherto exercised the function
of a brake on the Indian political movements, frightened
at the possible development of political hoohgantsm on the
part of the immature crowd and its harebrained leader,
deserted their post in the most cowardly manner. Mrs
Besant once wrote that —

“ ‘ A woman who fought her way out of Christianity
and Whiggism into free thought and Radicalism
absolutely alone , who gave up every old friend, male
and female, rather than resign the belief she had
struggled to m solitude , who, again, in embracing
active socialism has run counter to the views of nearest
male friends — such a woman may very likely go
wrong, but I think she may venture without conceit,
at least to claim independent judgment ’

• * * * #

“ The German Crown Prince, when remonstrated with
by the Kaiser about the heavy German losses at Verdun,
is reported to have replied that he was brave enough to
bear the German losses with fortitude Mrs Besant, when
her attention was drawn to the broken-up home and out-
raged friendships, claims independent judgment A
womans whims elevated to the dignity of independence of
judgment may break a loving mothers heart may break
up a happy home, may bring a world-wide society which
others have built up with tact and industry to the very
verge of ruin , but it is time to cry ‘ halt ’ when the political
future of a great country is attempted to be sacrificed at the
altar of the vanity which seems to be insatiable. The
conduct of those Indian political leaders who bartered away
the interests of their country for the flattery of an adven-
turess who preaches patriotism to Indians while belittling
the achievements of her own country and countrymen, will
receive the censure of history and the condemnation of
posterity.”

266

DISCUSSION ON THE FOREGOING PAPER

A meeting of the Association was held at the Lincolnshire Room, Great
Tothill Street, Westminster, on Monday, January 19, 1920, when a paper
was read by Miss I R Scatcherd, entitled '* India and her friends
Wise and Otherwise ” Sir J D Rees Bart, mp, in the chair The
following ladies and gentlemen, among others, were present Sir William
Opens Clark, Colonel C L Yate, c si, < w g , \i p , Brigadier General
H A Igguldcn c 1 r , Colonel C I Swame, 1 m s (retired), the Rev
I)r Durham the Baroness Barnekoff Captain and Mrs L C Cox, Lady
Kensington, Mr Duncan Irvine, ics (retired), Mr N C Sen, obe,
Mr F C Channmg ics (retired), Mr W Coldstream, k 1 h , Mr J B
Pennington, 1 c s (retired), Mr G Owen Dunn, Mr F H Brown, Mr
H Charles W oods, Mr G A J wecdie, ics (retired), Mrs AMT
Jackson, Miss T loyd Pierce, Miss Grey, Mr K 1 Tarachand, Mr M M
Alloige, Miss Sykes, the Rev 1 rank Penny Mr I rank Miss Dunder
dale, Mrs Halsh, Mr S R Rao, Mr H 1 Dunning, Miss Shaw, Miss
Beadon, Miss Barneby Miss Spiers, Mr H I J each, Miss Dunbar,
Mrs Collis Mr G M Ryan, Dr Mir ^nwaruddm Mrs Bartholomew,
Mr H R J Hemming General and Mrs Oadng n Baillie, the Hon
Mrs Grant, Mr and Mrs H M Gibl s Mrs \\ hite, Mrs Hedley
Thomson, the Rev \\ 1 Broadbent, Miss Harley Mrs Y F

kmneir Tarte, Miss dc Koheck Mrs Stephenson, C aptain Campbell,
Miss j Cad man, Miss Shephard Mr lareiJ) Mrs Hooker, Miss Powell,
Lady Maud Parry Mr C 1 Parker Mr S S Gnana Viran, Mrs Nast,
Mr Bradley, Miss Hopley, Mrs Barbara McKen/ie and Mr Stanley P
Rice Hon Secretary

The Chairman I adics and gentlemen, I very much regret that the
absence of 1 ord J,am ngton lias led to my occupying the chair to day

Being in the clmr I cannot he called to Older, but I promise not to
abuse the rults of order to any very gn.at extent

At the same time there is one subject not arising out of the paper, which
is very difficult for any gathering like this of people who are interested in
India and in Mahommtdans to ignore \\ hile we are met here to day the
question of the future of the 1 urkish Fmpirt and of Constantinople, a
question in which India is so vitally interLSttd is probably being debated
1 n Tans It is a question of such vital importance to all friends of India,
that I cannot help saying how much I hope the solution will be such as
will not cause pain and disappointment to the people of India, and in
particular to the Mahommcdans of India whether or not they take a great
interest in the Sultan of Turkey as the Caliph of Islam, as to which I have
some little doubt I think quite as much as need be has been made of that
paiticular point But as a student of Mahommedan languages, and a

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 267

frequenter of the company of Islam, I firmly believe that the Mahom-
medans in India, and the Mahommedans all the world over, are very proud
of the position of the Sultan as head of a great Power situated m what
Gibbon described as a place destined by Providence to be the seat of a
great Empire, and I believe the expulsion of the Sultan would be deeply
regTetted, if not warmly resented, by the Mahommedans of India. I hope
and pray that a satisfactory solution will be arrived at on that subject,
because I am not one of those who think we ought to have on our hands
all the minor nations, like Armenians, Serbians, Albanians, Montenegrins,
and so on to think of, but that it is about time we thought of our own
interest and our own pockets (Hear, hear )

Miss Scatcherd has written a very interesting paper. She has com-
mended 10 Mr Hyndnian and others the study of some very useful figures,
and I am quite sure that Mr. Hyndman and others will totally disregard
her advice in this respect, and will continue to repeat those figures which
best maintain their own arguments There is one criterion which no one
‘.eems willing to apply to these questions, that is the difference in the
expense of living in a country where you do not require expensive housing,
clothes, or food, and in a country where things are only procurable at almost
impossible prices. That is a point which is invariably avoided by all hot
reformers, who never seem to me to be the wisest people in the world
Another point which is totally neglected by all those who bring accusations
against British rule in India is that British India is not charged one penny
for the services of the British Navy, without which the country would have
bten the pre> of every pirate and every invader for the last hundred years
or more, as it was before the period of British supremacy I think
nobody who knows the country personally can have any doubt, w-hatever
figures may be brought forward, that India has nrogressed very much m
material prosperity in recent years There was a very admirable paper
published in the Asiatic Rlyifw* for tins month, in which it was shown
that on an average of three years before the war the trade showed that
there was a balance due to India of some 5° millions It is not a sign of
poverty to have a balance due to you, and I think in England we should
he extremely glad if the account were of the same character I am dis-
inclined, even if I had time to enter into any argument upon these figures,
but it seems to me that both sides can derive equal comfort according to
the faith that is in them. There is one remark I would make upon one
set of figures which are continually quoted and thrown at the heads of
those who venture to defend our rule in India, and that is the question of
the land assessment You know that it was a recommendation of the
Joint Committee on the India Bill, in which my honourable and gallant
friend, Colonel Yate, and I are so interested, that this in future should be
more of a legislative than an administrative matter. It may well be that
that should be so, and it will deprive critics of the Opportunity of mis-

* W. H. Moreland on “ Some Thoughts about the ‘ Dram ’ in India,”
Asiatic Review, January, 1920.

268 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

representing the matter Half the net is a light assessment. Half the
gross would be exceedingly heavy assessment. If you allow for
cultivating expenses anything between 25 per cent and 50 per cent,
obviously, when you deduct all that, and when a man gets half for himself
of what is left over everything, he is doing pretty well, and I think the
tax payers of this country would be rather glad to be in the same position
as the Indian ryot in this respect As regards Mrs. Besant, I should like
to make one remark, and I hope to carry the audience with me I have
never devoted much time or ink to the defence or praise of Mrs Besant.
In point of fact I described her as a storm-petrel in petticoats in the
House of Commons, but I am bound to say that in my judgment this is not
the time for raking up or for bringing forward criticism of Mrs Besant, or
of anybody else It is the time to follow the example set by our most
gracious Sovereign I et us have a spirit amnesty, not only an amnesty by
proclamation, among ourselves Mrs Besant at the present moment is
pretty moderate, and has been helping m the legislation which has just
been put through, and which, whether we like it or not, we must all wish
to make the best of Mrs Besant has, in this respect, been a moderate
critic, and has exercised a helpful influence, and therefore let us not bring
up anything she has said in the past Let us extend to her a spirit of
amnesty , and I would suggest to Miss Scatcherd that she should leave
out Part III of her paper, which is concerned with Mrs Besant

Sir J D Rees then read a letter from Dr John Pollen, cie, late Hon
Secretary of the Association, and member of the council, to the following
effect

January 16, 1920

My Dear Miss Scaichi-rd,

Although the doctors still insist that 1 must keep quite quiet. I feel
I must send you a line to wish you all success m the reading of your
paper (which Sir Arundel fittingly describes as “excellent )

Its main object is to make good blood instead of bad blood by bringing
out some fundamental truths about our administration in India In these
days, when so many seem to take an insane delight in blackening every
blot in that by no means blotless record, it is well to insist upon the fact
that most of the pages are clean, and that since 1857 there has been no
deliberately harsh or unjust Government in India Mistakes have no
doubt been made, but that only means that the Government has been a
human Government

I have always held that, such as it is, it rests and has rested, not on
conquest, but on the consent of the governed, and that is the only sure
foundation on which any Government can rest

I am glad that you bring out clearly that the land assessment is, on the
whole, light, and is certainly not the cause of the poverty of the ryot , and
that on the average the people of India, although poor inhabitants of a
very rich country, are not so poor compared with the poor of other
countries as is often pretended

As one who from the early days of hjs service has always been “ Pro-
Indian" and used to being reproached by some Mandarins as being “too

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 269

much in with the Indians,” may I thus place on record ray hearty
appreciation of your thoughtful and tactful paper.

[ Signed ) J Pollen

The Hon Secretary, in appealing for new members of the Association,
said that Dr Pollen, who was unique m his power of getting members,
during the time that he had acted as Secretary, had increased the
membership of the Association from about 60 to 500, and it was
his (the speaker’s) ambition to raise it very considerably more
than that, although he had not the same opportunities as Dr Pollen
had He appealed to all present to try to obtain as many new members
as possible They did not merely want people who were known to be
interested in India, as were the members of the Association, but those who
had not yet manifested any particular interest m India He was sure
there were many who, if they were asked, would be pleased to become
members of the Association (Hear, hear )

The Chairman read letters which had been received from Lord
Burnham, Lady Astor, m.p , and others, expressing their regret at being
unable to be present at the lecture

The paper was then read

The Chairman Ladies and gentlemen, we are so accustomed nowa
days to the eloquence of women that it does not even call for comment
I am sure we have heard a most interesting paper, delivered in a good
manner, and, what is most important, in an audible voice I am very
pleased that Miss Scatcherd has kindly taken to heart thL remarks I made
about the spirit of amnesty She spoke of the statements made in English
papers going all over the world, and that is my reason for mentioning one
statement made in her own paper \Y hether any class of people are capable of
governing themselves is a matter about which divtrse opinions are held at
this moment, even amon^ those people who are occupied in governing m
our own Parliament \\ hether people desire to be governed by their own
people or are satisfied with the government of foreigners is a matter upon
which present events m Egypt are throwing a ’urid light When Miss
Scatcherd says that the majority of people in this country die as paupers
I think that is rather a misleading statement I believe the people in
this country are better off at present than in any other place in Europe
One might read her statement to mean that most of our people die as
paupers in receipt of relief She spoke of the ^100,000,000 loan, and
rightly said it was proposed by an Indian member of C ouncil I think it
went even further than that I think the vote was taken of the Indian
members only, and that they all voted in its favour As to the aloofness
of British officers from the Indians, I think *he boot is upon the other leg
It is the Indians who keep rather aloof from the Europeans I state a
fact and I am not blaming Indians for it As to the land revenue, our
old friend, Mr. Pennington, could tell us that m his district of Tinnevelly
irrigated land sells for more than twenty years’ purchase, which is con-
sidered to be a good price in this country. But I do not wish to occupy
time devoted to debate, and will call on Colonel Yate to address this large
and representative assembly

270 The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise

Colonel C E Yate, m p , regretted that the Chairman should have
invited the Lecturer to omit Part III of the paper, and hoped that every
body in the audience would read that part carefully when it came out in
the journal, because what was said there ought to be well known through
out the country generally He was one of those who wished to see
Indians with a greater share in the management of their own country
The misrepresentations, though, which had been made about the British
Government m India had been very serious, and had done a great deal of
harm, especially of late In the days of the Mutiny, they must remember
it was a mutiny of soldiers against the Government, but the people of the
country, as a rule, were with the Government, and Europeans were often
assisted and saved by the people of the country In the recent Punjab
revolution, however, they had seen mobs, not from the country but from
the great towns, excited to unexampled violence and fury, but the
Government in this case had the soldiers with them in putting down
the mob who were trying to murder every European man, woman, and
child, and to destroy every bit of Government property equally with that
of the Indians who were serving the Government I hey all knew with
what difficulty the murderous mobs were prevented from carrjing out their
fell designs, and he was glad to see in how many cases Indians had come
forward to help I uropeans who were m danger He much regretted that
some of those who came to this country made misrepresentations with
regard to the British Government in India, and the Lecturer was to
be congratulated on the plucky manner in which she had brought some of
these erroneous statements to light In reference to the question of the
Sultan of Iurkey, he expressed the hope that the Confeience at Pans
would come to a satisfactory conclusion and that a settlement would
be arrived at whereby the Sultan of 1 urkey would remain in Constantinople
as an independent ruler (Applause )

Mr H Chvrj is Woods, commenting on the remirksof the ( hairman
and Colonel \ ate with regard to Constintinople, hoped that a solution
satisfactory to the ft dings of Moslems would be arrived at I here were
three asp cts of the 1 urkish question that were not sufficiently noticed in
this country, though a great deal of ink had been spilt upon that subject
Tirstly, it did not set m to matter very much whether millions of non Turkish
Moslems were historically correct or incorrect in believing that the Sultan
was their Caliph \\ hat mattered was whether or not they did, m fact,
regard him as their spiritual chief Secondly, as he (Mr Woods) believed
one of the claims of the Sultan to the Caliphate rested upon the fact that
he w'as the most important Moslem Prince ot the day, it appeared that
if he were removed from Constantinople it might have an indirect effect
upon his claims to the Caliphate \nd thirdly, while Constantinople was
undoubtedly the pihe dt rtsatince of the I urkish question from a European
standpoint, the future of the Asiatic part of the former dominions of the
Sultan was really the all important question from the Christian point
of view. If the Sultan were removed from Constantinople, neither the
Armenian nor the Greek question m Asiatic 1 urkey would be thereby
solved I hose questions required solutions more fundamental and more

The Friends of India , Wise and Otherwise 271

fax reaching even than the question of Constantinople — solutions which
must secure to the subject peoples security and safety m the future

Mr Tarachand regretted that Miss Scatcherd had omitted Part III
of her paper, because in his opinion a great deal of harm had been done
in India by Mrs Besant. She had started as a disciple of theosophy, and
had then developed into an Indian politician Her followers were
members of the society which she had founded, the Order of the Star in
the East, and they were only incidentally members of the Home Rule for
India League.

Mr Harold F Dunning said he had been some years in India, had
mixed extensively with Indians, and had discussed with many of the
principal ruling Princes in India questions regarding India , with the
result, he was convinced the question was largely one of education

The cause of most of the little disturbances we have had in India
is directly attributable to part knowledge of facts People such as
Mrs Besant went to India, convinced the uneducated (most of Mrs
Besant's followers belong to this class), but they did not convince the
educated Indians I he educated Indian, with few exceptions, was
perfectly satisfied with the British rule, though, of course, there were
points with which he did not agree (and this, most people will allow, is
inevitable) lie knew he was getting on much better under British rule
than if Indians had remained their own rulers, having regard to the many
castes, contentious factors, and differences of opinion in India itself

Y\ ith regard to the question of the aloofness of the British officer (by this
he meant those deputed by the Home Government to control certain
areas), it was certainly the opinion in India, and not without just cause,
that these representatives did not take the opportunity presented o£
studying Indian questions from the Indian point of view and were much
more aloof than they need be

On the motion of Mr Owen Dunn hearty votes of thanks were
by acclamation accorded to the Lecturer and the Chairman.

The Chairman having thanked the meeting on behalf of the Lecturer
and himself, the proceedings terminated

[Not* n\ thp I ecturli — I refrained from replying on account of the
lateness of the hour, but was willing (o omit the reading of Part III,
which I adaed rather for general information, finding Mrs Besant needed
a whole paper to herself Certainly the “I volution of a Reformer," as
illustrated by the life history of “ A B , might justify the Chairman's
aoubt as to reformers being the ‘wisest people in the world ” At the
request of those disappointed this time, I will deal with Mrs Besant s
career, as it affects India, on another occasion, here or elsewihere.

The term “ pauper ' was not used in its technical sense, but only meant
that the vast majority live from hand to mouth, and die without leaving
any pr perty behind worth mentioning — F R. Scatcherd ]

272

BURMA

By Sir Harvey Adamson, k.c.s.1.

When I landed at Bombay in 1877 — an Indian civilian on
my way, as 1 thought, to the Northern Provinces — I was
considerably perturbed to find on reporting myself at the
Secretariat that I was posted direct to Burma. My
acquaintances in Bombay were unable to give me any
information about Burma, but their countenances betrayed
the apprehension that they and 1 were parting for ever.
On my way across India I happened to travel with a
knowledgeable officer of my own service. He told me
that the mosquitoes in Burma were as large as his fist. He
corrected the depressing influence of this remark by
assuring me that from an official point of view Burma was
the best of all Indian provinces for promotion. “Why?”
I asked. “Because,” he replied, “no one has ever been
known to live five years in Burma.” Even at the present
day the average Englishman, though he knows very little
about Burma, will at least be positive that it is a place with
a dreadfully malarious climate. I am happily in a position
to tender myself as an exhibit to rebut these inexactitudes
about the climate of Burma. I lived thirty-eight years in
Burma, was scarcely ever ill, and enjoyed every day of my
time there. The truth is that there are unhealthy stations
in Burma as in every province of India, but that on the
whole the climate is as salubrious as any in the East. In
some respects it is less trying than in most parts of India,
because the monsoon breaks early and the hot season is
shorter and less fierce than in India, and also because at ail
times of the year one can be assured of a fairly cool night
in Burma. A night punka is never a necessity, though it

may often be a welcome luxury.

As for mosquitoes, one soon gets acclimatized to these

Burma

273

unpleasant creatures, and in any case there are few places
in Burma where they are more offensive than in Calcutta.
I grant that there are a few obscure stations where they are
very odious, and these have given a bad reputation to the
whole province. I have a vivid recollection of my first
visit to Maubin. We had been playing tennis, and were
sitting enjoying a peg in the twilight, when Boom-buzz ! a
sound like an aeroplane invasion, and everyone rushed to
the nearest house, which, like all houses in Maubin, was
built like a meat-safe, with every window, door, and crevice
lined with sheets of perforated zinc. The sound came from
clouds of mosquitoes which were wending their way across
the river from the jungle opposite, a nightly occurrence.
Strange to say, Maubin is a very healthy spot, the
mosquito not being of the Anopheles variety.

Burma was an unknown land in the remote days to
which I have referred, and it cannot be said that she has
yet emerged into the full blaze of publicity. Happy, they
say, is the country which has not a history, but unfortunately
a country which has no history does not excite very much
interest in other countries. Burma has had to solve many
problems, and there are many still to solve in connection
with development, irrigation, revenue, education, crime,
self-government, and a host of other subjects. But these
are all purely domestic affairs of an unexciting nature that
do not draw upon her the eyes of the world. I daresay
that if Burma had done something desperate — if, for instance,
she had adopted India’s chequered course of political
agitation — she would have been much better known to the
world than she is. But happily her progress in the arts of
civilization, though it has not been slow, has been peaceful,
and consequently she has not attracted the attention which
is due to her merits. As an illustration I may cite your
own Association. The East India Association has been in
existence for many years, and over a hundred papers on
Indian subjects have been read to large audiences. But
though Burma forms a considerable slice of East India,

274

Burma

being in fact little less in size than the combined areas of
Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and the United Provinces, only
two papers on Burmese subjects have ever been presented.
Do not suppose that I am attributing blame to your office-
bearers for neglect of Burma. I know from experience
how assiduous they are in roping diffident individuals into
the service of the Association. The result seems rather to
be due to want of self-assertion by Burma itself. There
are many retired officers of the services of Burma and
many merchants who could find much of interest in their
experiences to relate to an audience in this country, but
they appear to have imbibed the unobtrusive spirit of the
country of their adoption.

Burma is the farthest east of the provinces of the Indian
Empire. It stretches from Tibet in the north to far down
the Malay Peninsula in the south, and from Assam and the
Bay of Bengal in the west to China and Siam in the east.
It has an area of 231,000 square miles, more than three
times that of Bengal, but it has only about a fourth of the
population of that province The scenery of Burma is
varied and very beautiful There is a greenness in it which
is restful and pleasing to the eye after the parched sombre-
ness of India. The delta is, of course, flat, and its rice
plains do not differ in appearance from rice plains elsewhere,
except that they are ever and again relieved by picturesque
stretches of forest-land. As one proceeds farther north the
views become more charming. The rugged mountains, the
hills clad with verdure, the broad rivers, the magnificent
forests, the glittering pagodas, the cosy villages, and the
gaily dressed crowds make most pleasing pictures. The
coastal scenery is especially picturesque. There is no
prettier spot on the whole earth than the Mergui
Archipelago —

Whose islands on its bosom float

Like emeralds chased in gold

The tourist to the East usually lands in Bombay, travels
through the north of India first, and reserves Burma, if he

Burma

275

ever visits it at all, for the end of his tour. Consequently
he generally experiences some discomfort from heat in his
journey through Burma He is reversing the natural
order He should begin with the south and gradually work
north His best plan, if he desires a good climate at all
stages, is to sail from England m November direct for
Rangoon — preferably by the Bibb) Line which is as
luxurious and comfortable as any P and O — and, having
seen Burma, to take steamer for Calcutta or Madras and
continue his tour northward

The casual traveller will find much to interest him in
Burma The extent to which he can see the country
depends, of course, on the time at his disposal If he has
only a fortnight to spare he can travel by rail from Rangoon
to Myitkyma in the extreme north, halting for a couple of
days at Mandalay and return by river, a delightful trip
which can be done with every comfort If he has more
time on hand there are many opportunities of leaving the
beaten tourist s track and gaining a larger experience of
the country its villages and its people I homas Cook
and Son, Rangoon will provide him with itineraries It
will repay him to visit Maymyo, that most charming oi hill
stations where it is never too hot and never too cold and
where one is not perched on a precipice as in Indian hill
resorts but can drive, ride, and play polo or golf on level
ground If our tourist is a sportsman he can be sure of a
good bag of snipe at various points on his route, or if he
aspires to big game he may be able to secure an elephant
or a bison, or a saing — a species of wild ox peculiar to
Burma — but big-game shooting requires some previous
arrangement If he is a golfer he should, in passing through
Rangoon, visit Mingaladoon, the best golf links in the East
II he has scholarly tastes he can explore the ancient relics
of Buddhism at Pagan and other places If he has no
predilection in particular he will find in the bazaars and
pagoda fetes and indigenous sports, such as boat pony, and
bullock races, and in the arts of the country, such as silver

276

Burma

work, gold work, lacquer work, wood carving, and silk
weaving, much that will be new and interesting to him.
And above all he will discover the charm of the people of
Burma

Ten millions of a population of twelve millions are pure
Burmese The Burman is nearer to the Chinese than to
the Aryan in type He is short in stature but sturdy and
well built, and has a fair complexion for an Oriental The
women are pleasing in figure and features and although a
stranger from the West might hesitate to call them beautiful,
he would readily admit that they are comely and animated
and attractive, that they know how to dress tastefully, and
that they have the manners of a lady

With a fertile soil and a rainfall that never fails, life is
easy for the Burman and he has no acute struggle for the
means of existence Consequently he is not given to hard
work, unless the object interests him He is generally a
good-natured, careless, happy go-lucky individual who lakes
no trouble about the morrow Men and women are well
clad and they delight in gay colours and silk attire There
are few poor and no beggars On the other hand, there is
no aristocracy of wealth There are no great landlords, no
hereditary aristocracy and no tribal chiefs One man is as
good as another

It is \ common fallacy that the Burman is lacking in
courage The truth is that he is naturally brave, but makes
no cult of bravery He is not ashamed to admit fear or to
run away from danger In the years following the annexa-
tion of Upper Burmi whtn the whole country was in the
throes of rebellion the Burmese fought bravely, amidst
every possible discouragement with flint-lock guns and soft
iron swords against rifles and ba>onets It is only during
the late war that the Burmese have become soldiers of our
army I have heard from a British officer who was present
in Mesopotamia how the Burma Sappers and Miners threw
a bridge across the Diala under heavy fire, with their
comrades falling around them, as steadily and skilfully as if

Burma

*77

it had been an operation of ordinary parade. The Burman
is lavish in expenditure, and is not given to hoarding
money. Lightly come and lightly go is his fashion. Any
wealth that he may have accumulated he spends in charity,
builds a pagoda, or a monastery school, or a bridge, or
a rest-house, or digs a well, for by works such as these
he believes that religious merit will be credited to him.
The amount thus spent every year in Burma is enormous.
The Burman gives in charity far more in proportion to his
wealth than any other people. Unfortunately he is very
conservative in this respect, and cannot readily be persuaded
to give for other than his stereotyped religious charities.

The Burmese are Buddhists by religion, and their form
ot Buddhism is very pure. They have no caste distinc-
tions, no bigotry, and no enmity to other creeds. Religious
persecution is unknown. There are no priests properly
speaking, but there are thousands of monks, who live in the
monasteries outside every village, and may be seen in the
early morning begging their food on the streets. These
monks are simply a community of anchorites searching for
the truth. They never interfere in secular affairs, or in
matters of state, or express an opinion on such. The
reverence in which they are held by the people is very
great. The Burman kneels while he addresses them, or
when they pass him on the road.

There are no dark places in the lives of the Burmese as
there are in the lives of other Orientals. All is open to
the light of the day in their homes and their religion. The
women mix freely and openly with the men and take their
full share in social and domestic matters, just as their
European sisters do. Nothing more free than a woman's
position in the married state can be imagined. By law she
is the mistress of her own property and her own self. She
is gifted with a shrewd common sense, and has a very keen
idea of what she can do best, and what things she should
leave to her husband. She is an industrious housewife, and
an excellent shopkeeper. Speaking broadly it may be said

ay8

Burma

that the retail trade of the country is in the hands of
women.

The Burmese are a very adaptable people. They are
not hidebound by custom, as many Oriental races are, and
they are ever ready to take up new ideas when they think
that any practical advantage can be obtained from them.
For instance, the co-operative credit system, which was
introduced to their notice only a few years ago, has readily
gained acceptance, and it is now not rare to find villages
which have co-operative banks managed by the cultivators
themselves, and very efficiently, too. In Burma, as in
England, a man feels no constraint to follow his fathers
trade. The son of a cultivator may be a cultivator, or a
clerk, or a trader, or even a member of the provincial
civil service, and need never fear that the lowly origin of
his father will be cast up against him.

The monk is the schoolmaster of his village, but this is
aside entirely from his sacred profession. Every man has
attended a monastery school as a boy, and spent a part of
his boyhood as pupil or acolyte. He has lived there with
the monks, and learned from them the elements of educa-
tion and a knowledge of his faith. There are very few
Burmese who cannot read or write. For want of practice
the art may be lost, but it has been acquired. The educa-
tion is not very deep— reading and writing Burmese, very
simple arithmetic, and a great deal of religion. Every
Burman knows by heart large portions of the sacred books.

But while primary education, such as it is, is almost
universal, higher education is very backward. No Burman
has yet passed the competitive examination for the Indian
Civil Service. Burma has no University, though it is on
the eve of obtaining one, and has hitherto been dependent
for the higher learning on Calcutta University. It maybe
doubted whether the total of Bachelorships of Arts acquired
by Burmans has yet amounted to four hundred. If the
Bar be excepted, the Burmans who have qualified for the
learned professions might be counted on one’s fingers, and

Burma

279

even in the legal profession no Burman has gained any
very marked pre-eminence.

In the times of the Burmese kings the central Govern-
ment was weak, but local government was strong. From
the governors in the provinces you came straight down to
the village and its headman Each village was a self-
governing community And so it remains as far as may
be, under British rule The headman holds his appoint
ment from above as a matter of form, but he is chosen by
his fellow- villagers as a matter of fact Some of the
principal taxes are assessed and collected by the villagers
themselves The Government merely fixes the total. The
villagers then appoint assessors from among themselves,
and decide how much each household should pay A coolie
might pay two rupees and a trader as much as fifty So
well is the assessment made that complaints against the
decision of the assessors are unknown

Though there is much to admire tn the life and character
of the people, the Burmese have all the faults of an ex-
citable and impulsive race They are inveterate gamblers
and betting is the soul of every sport I hey are as fond of
a row as the Irish, and they are easily provoked to wrath
and too ready to use the neaiest weapon, be 't a club or a
knife, on the slightest provocation 1 hey ire especially
prone to committing crimes of violence Dacoity or gang
robbery, is a national failing and is regarded by the young
blood as a form of sport Some of these dacoities are
terrible crimes, involving not only murder, but the torture
of old or young men and women for their treasure When
a Burman sees red he can be very savage Another fault
in a Burman is his immense conceit He is willing to
yield the palm to a European, but regards himself as far
superior to any other Oriental The Burman rustic is
credulous and superstitious to a degree Petty rebellion
against the British Government is not an uncommon event,
and it is always based on superstitious credulity Any
daring adventurer, by the exercise of some deceptive

28o

Burma

sleight of hand which is attributed to magic, by the twisting
into a meaning of his own of some obscure prophecy, and
by the pretence that he is the reincarnation of a king, can
win the confidence of hundreds of ordinarily sensible men
who are ready to follow him in any mad enterprise of
rebellion, fully persuaded that when the first shot is fired
supernatural tigers and elephants will rush from the jungles
and ensure victory. This is not *an exaggerated picture
I can recall at least three occurrences during the time that
I was Lieutenant-Governor of Burma between 1910
and 1915

With many virtues and not a few vices the Burmese are
a most likeable people. I have never met anyone who
lived among them who has not felt their fascination. They
are full of fun and laughter, and are ever hospitable and
kindly. The stranger who visits their homes is always
welcomed I recall many pleasant hours spent under the
banyan tree in villages where I was a complete stranger,
conversing with the Burmans who sat around me, listening
to their gossip and laughter — for there is never a crowd in
Burma without laughter — and regaling myself with the
milk and honey and cheroots which their hospitality had
provided for my entertainment

I will now turn to a different aspect of my subject —
Burma as she appeals to the merchant and capitalist.
I have time only to give the briefest review of her rich
material resources in agriculture, forests, and minerals
Agriculture takes the first place The plains of Burma
comprise wet zones in the south and north, and a dry zone
in the middle The pre-eminence of Burma as a field for
agriculture lies in the fact that the rainfall has never been
known to fail In the wet zones one agricultural year may
be a little better than another, but there is never a bad
year. In the dry zone the rainfall is more variable, and
there are occasional seasons of short crops ; but scarcity
amounting to famine, which is so common in India, never
occurs m Burma.

Burma

281

The annually cropped area of Burma exceeds fifteen
million acres Most of it depends solely on natural rainfall
Less than 9 per cent is irrigated, chiefly by large Govern-
ment canals m the dry zone More than two-thirds of the
cropped area is under rice Burma is the chief granary in
the world for the export of rice Burma rice forms the
bulk of the Western world's supply , the annual export
approaches three million tons The methods of cultivation
are primitive, and are exactly the same as they were
hundreds of years ago Even the use of manure is almost
unknown except in the nee plant nurseries.

Other agricultural products are sesamum, millet, beans
and pulses, ground nut, cotton, maize wheat gram, rape,
chillies, sugar, tobacco, betel-nut, fruits of numerous kinds,
and rubber Most of these are capable of large expansion.
Rubber is a comparatively new industry, the tapped area
scarcely yet exceeding twenty thousand acres In the
south, especially in the Tena^serim division, the soil and
the climate are very suitable to its growth, and when the
country becomes better provided with means of communica-
tion large extensions may be expected

From this brief summary it will be seen that agriculture
in the plains of Burma has already made large strides, but
that there is ample room for further progress It is prob-
able that the supply even of rice can be much increased by
the use of manure, and the adoption of intensive methods
of cultivation , while other agricultural products have a
field open for expansion in area cultivated, selection of
seed, introduction of new staples, and improved methods
of cultivation The uplands of Burma, chiefly the Shan
States, are still for the most part virgin soil 1 hey are
suitable for wheat, potatoes, tea, and other products of a
temperate climate, and present a large field for future
enterprise.

Next to agriculture in importance come the forests of
Burma, which are more remunerative than those of any
other Indian province. They are the storehouse of teak,

VOL xvi. T

282

Burma

from which the world’s requirements of this valuable
timber are supplied. They comprise 30,000 square miles
of reserved forests and 120,000 square miles of unclassed
forests, and, so far as teak is concerned, they are worked
in accordance with the most approved scientific methods
Teak forests are exploited partly by departmental agency
and partly by private enterprise In the latter case the
forests are leased to timber firms, which fell and extract
trees selected and marked by the forest officer, and use
them for the supply of their saw-mills

During the war timbers other than teak have been
exploited on a large scale for military purposes in India
and Mesopotamia There are enormous quantities of such
timbers, for which a remunerative market has not yet been
found, but which will probably find a sale in Europe when
freights have been reduced to a normal rate Indeed,
many of these timbers may be more useful in the West
than in the East, because the chief objection to their use
in the East is that they are subject to depredation by
white ants.

The forests of Burma contain much wealth in minor
forest products, none of which has y< t been largely ex-
ploited except cutch Among minor forest products may
be mentioned bamboos, canes, fibres, barks, wood oils,
cardamoms, myrobalans, and lac Vast quantities of gums,
resins, dye-stuffs, and tanning materials are still waste
products The attention of the h orest Department has
hitherto been directed mainly to teak In other umbers
and minor produce a large field is still open for the develop-
ment of the forest wealth of Burma

Burma has also immense mineral resources, much of
which is potential, as it is still in the ground

Will Burma ever become a gold field ? It would be
rash to predict that it will, but there are indications that it
may. Gold is washed down by many streams, and there
are some who make a precarious livelihood by extracting it
from the silt Dredging for gold was carried on by a com-

Burma 283

pany in the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy, and though
commercial success was not attained the company had
a vitality of twelve years, and not a few thousand ounces of
gold was won An attempt was made to win gold from
quartz, which was abandoned after the extraction oi
1,250 ounces These are indications that there must be
much gold in the province, but it has not yet been dis-
covered in remunerative quantities near the surface.

Coal, chiefly of inferior quality, is found in many places,
but some of it, in localities at present commercially inacces-
sible has been reported by the geological survey as being
about equal in quality to Ramganj coal

Tin has for long been worked in the extreme south
of Burma but, unfortunately, it occurs in a locality devoid
of means of transport It is believed that it will some day
be worked with commercial success Jade stone is found in
considerable quantities in wild tracts in the extreme north
of Burma, and is worked by native methods It finds an
unlimited market in China

Rubies spinels and sapphires of first-rate quality occur
at Mogok where the Ruby Mines Company c irries on its
work The introduction of the artificul rub) which at
1 short distance is undistmguishable from tin real stone,
has militated against the company s success Judging from
the quotations of its shares on the Stock Exchange the
compan) appears to be coming into a new era of prosperity
Burma has immense wealth in petroleum The annexa-
tion of Upper Burma in 1S85 brought into prominence the
oil wells of Yenangyaung which had long been worked by
the Burmese by primitive methods that drew oil only from
the higher strata This field and others that have been
discovered are now worked b> British companies, and give
an annual yield of 300,000,000 gallons

Wolfram is found chiefly in Tavoy district and before
the war the whole supply went to Germany, from which
country all tungsten used in England was obtained The
war gave an impetus to its extraction, and in 1917 as much

284

Burma

as 4,000 tons was shipped to England The Tavoy field
produces one third of the world’s output

Silver, lead, and zinc are extracted from the Burma
Corporation s mine at Bawdwin, which promises to be one
of the big mining propositions of the world.

Of all these mineral products oil is the only one that has
yet reached a great commercial success But other mineral
resources are very promising, though they are at present
mainly in the prospecting stage of development

The progress of commercial development in Burma is
sorely retarded by the absence of adequate means of com-
munication Nature has given the province a fair comple-
ment of waterways, but to serve an area nearly twice the
size of the United Kingdom she has only 1 600 miles
of railway Her deficiency in roads is even more marked
The total length of roads is put down on paper as only
2 000 miles and most of these are not worthy of the name,
and are fit only for bullock cart traffic Burma has hitherto
been the Cinderella of Indian provinces, uncared for by the
distant Government of India who have turned a deaf ear
to her lequests that a larger share of her revenues should
be devoted to her own development The first require
ment of the province is more railways and an adequate
system of roads to carry the produce to the railways and
rivers The lack of transport facilities is a deterrent to the
influx of capital, without which the great potential resources
of Burma cannot be developed She may be expected to
have a great commercial future when the Go\ernment of
India wake up to the fact that in a country rich in material
resources expenditure on communications is as productive
of wealth as any other outlay of capital

A lecture on Burma confined to a limit of forty minutes
must necessarily be an incomplete production I have
been able only to sketch some prominent features of the
province and its principal race of inhabitants My hope is
that I may have induced some of you to seek a deeper
knowledge of an interesting country and a delightful

Burma

*85

people I will conclude with a word on constitutional
reform, a subject which is of considerable interest to the
province at the present time

Burma was excluded from the Indian Reform Scheme
for the reasons that her people are in a different stage
of political development, and that as yet the desire for
elective institutions had not arisen A promise, however,
was given in the Montagu-Chelmsford report that Burma
should have an opportunity of participating in the reforms
so far as they were applicable to her circumstances This
promise awakened the national pride It was felt that
Burma could not be contented to remain m a condition
of tutelage while other provinces were obtaining a large
measure of independence Jt also aroused considerable
apprehension It was feared that if the opportunity were
not seized, Burma might come to be ruled by an Indian
Government largely controlled by Indian politicians Per
haps the latter was the more powerful influence, for
Burmans have always been strongly averse to having
Indians placed in authority over them

There are not a few reasons why the path to self
government may be expected in the long run to be
smoother in Burma than in India I have mentioned
some of these in describing the character of the Burmese
Burma has no caste system and no religious cleavage
Her monastic institutions ensure the diffusion of a limited
type of primary education Her people readily adapt
themselves to new conditions and are not hidebound to
custom Her women are free and untrammelled The
masses are intelligent and live up to a high standard of
comfort The people are so homogeneous that practically
a single language will carry one throughout the country
Notwithstanding these favou r able conditions, Burma is
at present far behind India in fitness for self governing
institutions In India the demand of the educated classes
for representative self government has been agitated for
more than fifty years, which has resulted in a considerable

286

Burma

development of political education In Burma, until the pub-
lication of the Reform report, no Burman had ever dreamed
of self-government for his country, nor had any indication
been given that even the intelligentsia desired it Political
education in Burma is absolutely non-existent In India
the educated classes, though not forming a large proportion
of the total population are numerous I have already
commented on the backwardness of general education in
Burma The standard of higher education is much lower
in Burma than in India The educated classes, such as
they are are very few in number, and most of them are in
Government service, and therefore ineligible for the field of
politics for almost the sole object of education among the
Burmese hitherto has been to obtain an appointment in the
Services There are English newspapers in Burma edited
and managed by Englishmen but the Burman Press has
been entirely vernacular Until constitutional reform was
mooted, it confined its attention to religious matters, and
contained no criticism of the action of Government Not
even in local public affairs have Burmans hitherto shown
any interest In respect of political development and
general education the intelligentsia of Burma are at least
fifty years behind the intelligentsia of India

These are the considerations which the Lieutenant-
Governoi Sir Reginald Craddock, had in \iew when he
formulated his scheme for the first step to self-government
in Burma It gives a large measure of local self govern-
ment to both urban and rural tracts, provides a legislative
issembly, on which all classes communities, and interests
are represented, mostly by election and partly by nomina-
tion introduces all urban ratepayers and almost all rural
taxpayeis to the vote, and associates the people with the
Executive Government by the appointment of nominated
non-official chairmen to preside over boards for the conduct
of business The effect of the scheme, if it comes into
operation, will be to give to the representatives of the
people a considerable influence, but no greater actual

Burma

287

power, in shaping the policy of Government than was
given by the Morley-Minto reforms in the most advanced
provinces. The popular assembly will, in its first stage, be
a school in which the art of politics may be learned, rather
than an authority exercising any direct power of self-
government. The scheme is a tremendous advance on all
that is past. I believe that it satisfies the elders in Burma,
but it by no means meets the aspirations of the Young
Burma party, who ask for at least as large a measure of
reform as has been given in the most advanced of Indian
provinces.

In what shape the scheme will emerge from the Govern-
ment of India and the Secretary of State has not yet been
determined. I do not blame Young Burma for its aspira-
tions. It is in the essence of politics that there can be no
progress unless there is an advance party asking for more
than can be immediately granted. But wiser heads will
reflect that there is danger in inordinate haste. It requires
no great measure of education to exercise a vote, but if
a party is to be entrusted with powers of government there
must be in it a considerable leaven of men who possess
general education and political experience. It is in this
respect that Burma is at present behind India in its fitness
for self-governing institutions. Burma has a hopeful future
in the path of reform, but she has a long leeway to make
up, and the initial pace must necessarily be slower than in
I ndia.

288

DISCUSSION ON I HE FOREGOING PAPER

At a meeting of the East India Association held at the Lancashire
Room, 7a, Tothill Street, Westminster, on Monday, February 9, 1920, a
paper was read by Sir Harvey Adamson, kcsi, ll.d , entitled “ Burma ’
Sir Frederick W R 1 ryer kcsi, occupied the chair The following
ladies and gtntkmen amongst others, were present The Right Hon
Lord I amington ( c m c ccie Sir Lancelot Hare, kcsi, c 1 e ,
Sir Frank C Gates, k c 1 K , c s 1 , Sir Herbert Holmwood, Sir George W
Shaw, csi, Sir William Ovens Clark, Mr A Porteous, Cl E, Mr H.
Darlington, c 1 1 Mr N C Sen o 11 f , General H A Iggulden, c 1 e,,
Lady Kensington, Lady Simeon, Mr S S G Viran, Captain Cox, Mr P
V Guiry, Mr A Tggar MissVertue, Miss b R Scatcherd, Lieut Colonel
G V Holms, Mr Khin Maung Yin, Mr K M Gyee, Colonel P S
Terry, Colonel Dcs Vucux, Miss Dcs\a.ux, Mr and Mrs Robert Sewell,
Mr G M Ryan, Mrs Slater, Miss McNauthy Miss I ambert Mr H L
Leach, Miss R Shaddick, Mr C I eo Parker, Colonel and Mrs A S.
Roberts, Miss Goidon Mr j V Parr) 1 leutenant J P B Jeejeebboy,
raf, Mr Ba Them Mr C \\ Dunn ics, Miss Slater, Mr Bonser,
Mr and Mrs H M Gibbs Mis Daly, Mr N C Daruwalla, Mr Keene,
Mr T I P Richter, Mrs Stevenson Howell Mrs White, The Rev W
I Broadbtnt Mr W Frank Mr V\ Kerr and Mr Stanley P Rice, Hon
Secretary

The Chairman said it was haidl) necessary for him to introduce the
Lecturer, as he expected he must be known personally to most of those
present, and certainly by name to all He had kindly consented to read
a paper on 1 Burma, and he was sure the paper would be most interesting,
as few people knew Burma and its people as well as Sir Harvey did, he
having spent a good many )cars m the Province and knew it from end to
end

The paper was then read, bein 6 received with great enthusiasm

The Chairman My lord, ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you have all
listened with great pleasure to the paper, and we must all be glad that the
I ecturer has been induced to abandon the unobtrusiveness of the people
of Burma and to come forward and read this paper I am only sorry that
he felt obliged to curtail his paptrsoas to bring it within the limits of forty
minutes, for we should all havt been pleased to hear much more As for
myself, I cannot claim to have the intimate knowledge of Burma that Sir
Harvey has I only went to Burma in 1866, very much against my own
wish, for I was persuaded that BunuA was a very unhealthy country, and
that I should probably never be well there , but 1 managed to remain in

Burma

289

Burma for seventeen years, and I was much better in health there than I
was m India. I do not think the climate of Burma has had any dele-
terious effect on me. We must remember that Burma is a very recent
acquisition of the Government of Great Britain. It was not till 1826 that
we first got a footing in Burma, when we annexed the Province of Arakan
and the greater part of Tenassenm , it was not till 185a that we annexed
the Province of Pegu, and it was not till 1866 that we annexed Upper
Burma. When I first went to Burma the country was very much disturbed,
and I spent out of the first year I was in Burma no less than nine months
in accompanying military columns which were endeavouring to restore peace
to the country We were not at that time at all popular in Upper Burma,
and I remember one of the high officials of the ex Government telling me
that He said he did not know whether we English thought we were
wanted in Upper Burma, but if we did we were certainly very wrong. I
told him that I thought that in any case the English Government was
better than the Burmese Government had been in Upper Burma, where
nobody’s life or property had been safe for some time. He said “ Yes, it is
quite true your Government is better than ours, but then our Government
was our Government and not yours, and we were an independent kingdom,
and now we are nothing but a Province of India,” which he considered a
very low condition indeed Well, Upper Burma was very quickly reduced
to a state of peace, and I think within five years from its annexation
Upper Burma was as peaceful as, if not more peaceful than, Lower Burma,
and, as we have all seen, during the late war the Burmans have come forward
with the most wonderful loyalty to assist the Government in their need
(Hear, hear) I always thought myself, and I was always told, that the
Burmans were not a military people, and certainly there were some reasons
for entertaining that idea but we found we were quite wrong, and that the
Burmans have a military genius, and can easily be brought to submit to
discipline They have distinguished themselves in many fields, not only as
fighting forces but as labour units, so much so that even the Chins, who
used to be nothing but savages, came foiward to help us I lately saw in
London certain members of the Chin Labour Battalion, amongst whom
was a Jemadar, and I was surprised to hear him speaking Burmese, and
on asking him, “ How did you come to learn to speak Burmese?” he replied*
“ You were my teacher ” I said, “ In what way 5 ” and he said . “ Well,
you sent me to ten years imprisonment in the Rangoon Gaol, and there I
learned Burmese, and now I am a Jemadar, and I am very much obliged for
the instruction you gave me Then he said, “ 1 he ten years’ penal servi-
tude 1 got was an act of great kindness, because my original sentence
was a sentence of death, which you commuted to ten years so one some-
times does good without knowing it

I quite agree with what the Lecturer has said about the want of com-
munications m Burma. When I first went to Upper Burma we had no
roads and no railways or anything, except the Irrawaddy flotilla, and I
assure you that in those days Sir Charles Bernard constantly represented
the want of roads and railways to the Government of India, but he had

290

Burma

the greatest difficulty in even getting sanction for an extension of the
railway from Toungoo to Mandalay. I was a c sociated with him in those
days, and I know how reluctant the Government of India was to allow
any extension of the railways. The Government of India always kept us
short of money in Burma, and although I frequently explained to them
that the money spent in Burma would bring in very large interest it was
very difficult to persuade them to even find the money which was an
absolute necessity, and we are at present, as the Lecturer has pointed out,
still very short of communications in Burma. You cannot develop a
new country without money, and although Burma has developed very
rapidly, it would have developed very much more if the Government of
India had been more liberal, and not only would they have reaped a great
reward from any expenditure in Burma in the shape of very large interest,
but they would have had in the country more Europeans, who would have
visited the country in search more particularly of minerals, for the minerals
of Burma, I am sure, will repay any explorers YVe have all seen what the
oil-fields have been, and I know myself that there is a great deal of gold
in Burma, for when I was there I went on a tour up the river Chindwin,
and all the cultivators on the banks brought their revenue to me in gold ,
so much so that the sailors on board the ship made a good deal of money
by exchanging rui>ecs for gold, which we were told was washed from the
sands ; and if gold could be found from the sands, there must be places
where it comes from, and I am sure there is a great deal of gold in that
neighbourhood There are also silver mines in the Shan States, which
had fallen into disuse in my time because there was not enough silver
found to piy the expenses, and also there was no sale for the lead
which was mingled with the silver I trust that the Government of India
has by this time recognized the possibilities of Burma, and will do more
to develop the Provinces

Now I think the only thing which remains for me to deal with is the
question of self government Sir Harvey has told you his views on that
subject, and 1 heartily agiee with him in what he said I believe that
the Burmans, so far as the ordinary peasant and cultivator and mechanic
goes, arc better educated up to a certain point than the same class of
people in India Of course, my experience of India is rather remote, but
when I was in the Punjab there were very few people who could read and
write, whereas in Burma everyone can read and write , and if there is any
measure of self-government in Burma, I think that the women should
certainly have a vote, because the women take part in all the business in
Burma, and in many cases you may say the most prominent part Many
Burmans, when they used to come to see me when I was in Burma on
matters of business, often asked if they could bring their wives with them,
because their wives understood the business better than they did , and
that was generally the case, because the women as a rule were very keen
business women who took a great interest in their husbands’ work. In
fact, I well remember in the early days some Burmese judges liked to
have their wives on the Bench with them, and I think the wives did the

Burma

291

pnncipal part of the work. But, lest you ma> think that Burma is a
paradise for the women, I ought to mention the fact that the women do
the pnncipal part of the hard work as well Going up the river in
a steamer, you find that the women load the wood, and the men sit on
the banks smoking cigars, so that there is something perhaps not quite so
favourable in the life of the women there as one might be led to
suppose. I think, as far as Burma goes, that they should have self-
government of some sort, but as the Butmans are quite distinct in race
and language and m religion from the Indians, I do not ste why they
should not have a model of their own 3 and, as the Lecturer has told you,
the Burmans would intensely resent any interference by Indians in their
affairs, therefore why should they model their lives upon the Indian
system, instead of adopting ont of their own? I hope the Burmans will
in time find what are called intellectuals, who will be able to take a
part in the work of their administration, and that Burma will not be left
behind in any wa> by India (Hear, hear, and applause )

Sir h rank. GAir 4 - said that he renewed his recollections of the
delightful Pi ounce of Burma with the greatest pleasure l he picture
that had been drawn lor them seemed delightful, but he remembered
about twent) years ago meeting some friends wno had just been reading
“ The Soul of a People,’ and who remarked to Imn how lucky he was to
live in that delightful country amongst those delightful people, and he
repittd “Alas' Paradise has not yet descended trpori earth’ But,
although Burma was not Paradise, still it was a very aliurme and pleasant
place , it had its drawbacks, but the people soon came to be beloved by
those who dwelt amongst them

1 he Lecturer had told them that the art of criticizing government was
still in its infancy in Burma I hat did not m ike the work of a Government
official an> less pleasant btill, he remembered a Burmese newspaper,
which had a brief existence some thirty years ago, in which cnticism of the
Government did take place, and one phrase which ippeaud in it he well
remembered, and that was to the effect that the performances of the
Chief Secretary to the Government in those days were like those of a
buffalo trying to play a harp (laughter) Howeier, surli was the
undeveloped political sense of the Burmans that the newspaper r eased
for want of support He thought tht really important point about
Burma s development at the moment was whether it should go on with
India or should be separate He was not one of those who thought that
the connection with India had been a disadvantage to Burma on balance.
Oi course, the disadvantages were patent the difficulty of getting money,
and the liability to have projects overruled by a distant authority On
the other hand, if Burma had been a Crown Colony, with no powerful
neighbour near by under an obligation to render assistance, he doubted
if its progress would have been so rapid The Government of India was
a large organization, supplied with experts in various branches, and, what
was perhaps most important, especially in the beginnings of things, n was
possessed of the force able to restore law and order It must be

292 Burma

remembered that the initiation of order in Upper Burma was rendered
possible by the services of the Indian Army and the Indian military police.
If the Government of India in its new development still retained a shape
which rendered possible Burma’s continued connection with it, he would
rejoice , but if the changes were going to eventuate in a Government of
India largely shaped by caste prejudice and by such Oriental modes of
thought as were as alien from the Burman as from the Englishman, then
he thought it would be time for Burma to separate

He need not expatiate on the healthfulness of Burma, because they had
seen the Lecturer and also the Chairman The latter had been able to
spend seventeen years in this country after seventeen years spent in Burma,
and many years m India before that So they would agree that the climate
of Burma could not be deadly to the European Of course, it varied ,
Burma had several climates With regard to the absence in Burma of
large landed estates, that was only because Burma was in an earlier state
of development 1 he large landed estates existed, but whether they would
be permimnt or not remained to be seen fortunately, the law of
inheritance in Burma was sucli as u oppose obstacles to the persistence
of a large estate If the disadvantages of large landed estates were
avoided, so also were the advantages missed, the result being that there
was no (lass in Burma possessed of inherited wealth, and therefore with
leisure, able to devote itself to the service of the public in a way which
might Ik expected from a public spirited leisured class Thus the
development of Burma was likely to be on lines somewhat different from
that of India and different Irom that of any Western country They
would all follow with interest the future development of the Province, and
would all pray that the icsult might be such as to continue the happiness
of the Burman at the same time as he proceeded with his education,
both littrarj and political (Heir, hear)

Mr k M \ in said he would like to say a few words because he was a
Burman \\ nh regard to self government Sir Harvey had said that
Burma was nthir young for politics He was prepared to admit that they
were not so idvirn ed as the Indians were in that connection, but he did
not admit tint she was so backward as not to have self government *lhe
Lecturer had stated th it India had been agitating for fifty years, resulting in
considerable political development and education It was true, as had
been pointed out, that the Burman was a quiet sort of individual, but they
certainly were sufficiently educated to the idea that they ought to have
self government I he Burmese had been controlling their own affair*
since the time ot the Burmese kings, under what was known as the
village system, where the headman had full control over their affairs
It had also been stated that the standard of higher education in Burma
was much lower than in India Of course, that might be so when they
considered the English language and English ideas, but Burma had an
education of her own , the\ had their own literature, and in their own
way they were fairly well educated With regard to the newspapers, there
were two English papers which more or less catered for the English

Burma

293

people there ; but of late there had been one Burmese paper started, called
the Burma Observer , which catered for the younger generation who
could read English. The Lecturer stated on page 15 of the lecture • “ Not
even in local public affairs have Burmans hitherto shown any interest*”
In past years, true, they had not, because they had been satisfied with what
had been done, but they were now beginning to assert themselves in order
not to be left in the background, and they were all hoping that the
Government and Mr. Montagu would consider their case. With regard to
the statement on page 16 of the lecture with reference to the elders and
the aspirations of Young Burma, it was true there were two parties now in
Burma The Young Burma party wanted more reforms, and they did not
see why they should not have the same reforms when they had been
given to other Provinces Many Provinces of India were not so
advanced as Burma was, but they were promised better reforms than
Burma had been promised He hoped, however, they would be allowed
as wide a measure of self government and as large reforms as other
Indian Provinces would have, though they did not wish to have Indians
placed over them. (Hear, hear )

Mr N. C Darnawalla said he certainly thought the aspirations of the
Burmans should be met, and that they should be allowed to work out
their own salvation, but he did not agree with the reason which had been
suggested — namely, that the Burman should not be ruled by people who
would perhaps be prejudiced by the caste system That argument did
not appeal to him at all, but apparently many English people did entertain
the idea that when India was ruled by her own people she would be to a
large extent governed by the caste system. Pew people seemed to realize
how during the last five or ten years India had made great strides in the
direction of progress, and that there were many people in India absolutely
untrammelled with the caste system People who knew the Parscesknew
how highly educated they were, but when they were talking about unity and
a real brotherhood of all Indians they should not say suth things He
certainly thought the Burmans should be allowed to carry on their own
Government. India was already very large, and, brothers as they were,
they did not want to take in the Burmans as well against their will , hut
he did agree with the argument which had been brought forward that on
account of Oriental ideas the Burmans would not like to be ruled by
Indians He quite thoroughly agreed that they should be allowed to
govern themselves when the time was ripe for them to do so

Mr K. M. Gvke said that, speaking about self-government for
Burma, certainly they had not acquired much party feeling as yet, but he
thought that the Lecturer was not well informed about the question of the
elders and the Young Burma party There was no question of party spirit
id Burma at yet^they had only one idea, and that was for the benefit and
uplifting of Burma, they were termed Young Burma because they were
seeking more reforms than they had been promised. The present Lieut.-
Governor had put forward a scheme of reforms as being the most suitable
for the Province at present, to which the Young Burma party were opposed,

294

Burma

and they had sent a deputation to England to put their ideas before the
Secretary of State, and Mr Montagu has promised them a separate Bill
The elders were nothing but a handful of uneducated people, and, although
they had no prejudice against them, they (the elders) were certainly always
subservient to their so-called elder party They might be nght or wrong,
but the Young Burma party always fought for the right, and all they asked
for was the same measure of reform as had been promised to India. The
present suggested scheme of reform fell far short of that The headmen of
the villages were practically servants of the Government, and, although they
were in pra< lice elected, the Deputy Commissioners had power to
appoint and to remove them fiom offire 1 hey do not say they wished to
be separated from India, but what they wanted ivas real reform, and not
another form of Sir Reginald ( raddock’s type

Lord Lamimyion said tint, as the ( hairman of the East India Associa-
tion, it was a special pleasure to him to htar the lecture that afternoon.
In these da>s, with rales and taxation amounting to 1 3s in the pound, he had
often div ussed to what country he should retire when he was squeezed
out, and lie thought, after listening to the paper, he should select Burma 1
He could not imagine a less harassing existence than that which he had
heard described.

With regaid to the question of the future constitution of Burma, he
would like to congratulate the two Burmese speakers on their command of
the I nglish language, and what thej had just said was extremely interest-
ing but il tiie description of the Lecturer was quite accurate, it was clear
they would need to go forward with their representative ms ltutions in a
leisure 1) fashion, so as to be sure that what the) did met with the general
wish of the people After all, although certain great 1 ndtm reforms had been
promulgated, the > had not yet seen them put into force, and they must
display some caution in regard to any fresh forms of Government put
forward by the Burmese themselves

Ht could not say much about Burma personal]), but he had listened
with gnat pleasure to the descriptions of the country. He had been in
Siam and the Shan States, and he recognized man) of the qualities of those
people appert lining to the Burman, particularly the literary qualities and
the qualities of the womtn-folk He remembered the ladies did most
of the business, even in the British houses of commerce there, and
he agieed that when votes weie given the ladies ought be included
(Hear, hear )

Colonel ' 1 1 kry said, referring to what had been discussed regarding the
prominent position taken by the women folk in Burma and their business
like aptitude, that as the women of this country had so many greater
advantages and greater responsibilities, he would like to suggest that
they might well try to become equally as business-like as the women of
Burma (Hear, hear)

The Lf.cturlr, in reply, said that he was fortunate in having very little
criticism to answer. The only criticism was that raised by the two
Burmese gentlemen, whom he was glad to have seen on their feet, but he

Burma

*95

thought they had rather misunderstood what he had said His own wish
was that they should eventually have m Burma as full a measure of self-
government as that given to any province of India, for on the whole he
thought the people were more democratic than those of any province of
India he had known The difference between himself and the two
Burmese gentlemen was that they wanted to have the whole thing at once,
whereas be thought it better that there should be a period of education jn
business and public affairs, such as they would undoubtedly get from the
councils which Sir Reginald Craddock proposed to appoint, and then
after a few years they would be much better fitted for a forward step m self
government He feared that if they went too fast at first they would only
come to grief Another criticism was that under Sir Reginald’s scheme
the councils would be filled with headmen. It would take too long to
thoroughly explain this point Briefly, there may have been some ground
for this criticism as applied to Sir Reginald Craddock’s original scheme,
in which a member of the Circle Board was to be appointed for each
village But in his final scheme members of the Circle Board are to be
appointed for groups of villages, and he (the Lecturer) thought the chances
were that the Circle Boards would have a great many members who were
not headmen at all, and he also thought that not very many headmen
would ever reach the legislative Assembly '1 he members of the Circle
Boards, who were the constituency for the legislative Assembly, would
probably choose men of higher education and standing than the village
headmen

In conclusion, he would like to take the opportunity of inviting them to
see a collection of objects of art which had been recently brought over from
Burma, and which were now to be seen in the Indian Galleries of
the Imperial Institute It was a collection which would well repay a visit
(Hear, hear )

On the motion of Sir F Gates, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to
the Chairman for having presided over the meeting, and earned with
acclamation

The Chairman suitably replied to the vote of thanks, and the proceed-
ings then terminated.

296

THE PROSPECTS OF ZIONISM

By D. S. Margoliouth, m.a., litt.d.

The capture of Jerusalem may be said to mark a stage
in human progress. When the city was taken by the
Christians in 1099, “the Moslems were massacred in the
streets, in the houses ; Jerusalem had no asylum for the
conquered.”* When the less barbarous Moslems retook
the city in 1187, the conqueror granted the inhabitants
their lives, and allowed them to purchase their liberty at
the rate of ten pieces of gold for the men, five for the
women, and two for the children. t All the churches,
except that of the Holy Sepulchre, were turned into
mosques. When Lord Allenby entered the city, the
rights of the inhabitants were respected , there was only
greater security than before for each and all.

There is still room for hope that this laurel may remain
untarnished. There is, however, cause for apprehension.
Have the diplomatists here, too, committed themselves
behind the backs of the inhabitants to a policy which will
be inaugurated with bloodshed and rapine' 1 To answer
this question we must endeavour to discover the meaning
of Zionism

Now, much may be said in the language of poetry and
devotion which occasions serious difficulty when it is
regarded as commonplace prose. No harm results from
speaking of “ the inalienable heritage of Abraham ” in the
pulpit, at a prayer meeting, or at a Bible class ; the purpose
is edification, and this phrase very likely helps to compass
it But when it is used as a reason why Palestine should
be handed over to the Jews, the services of the historian

* Michaud, u Histoire des Croisades,” 1. 236, 1857.

t Ibid , 11 58

297

The Prospects of Zionism

and the jurist must be called m The historian would
reply that the land has in historic times (Abraham is pre-
historic) been seized by a long series of nations by right of
conquest, and that the governments of these nations have
disposed of the land as they thought fit If the Israelites
claimed that they obtained it by God s gift, so did the
Moslem conquerors and so, too, did the Franks, as the
very title of the record Gcsta Du per Francos implies

How a jurist would reply is not so certain But if he
admitted that a group of men had a right to a country
because some two thousand years ago it was in the occupa-
tion of their ancestors, it is likely that he would require
title-deeds and proofs of pedigree Say that the Old
Testament might count as the first — and an age which
knows not of Moses but only of anonymous Elohists and
Jahviats, could not admit this — where is the second ?
What evidence is there that any single Jewish family of
to-day is lineally descended from the ancient Israelites ?
There is none

Horace, Juvenal, and the Gospel, not far removed in
date from either, speak of eaimst and effective piosclytism
carried on by the Jews within the Roman Empire and
the retention of the Jewish name for the seventh day
of the week in some Romance languages strongly confirms
their assertion This proselytism seems to have been
carried on into the third century of our era * That in
its early centuries there was a Jewish kingdom m South
Arabia is attested by an inscription , its subjects were
doubtless mainly Arabs who had adopted Judaism The
great realm of the Khazars between the Black Sea and
th* 1 Caspian, was Jewish for some two centuries , a con-
temporary writer records the conversion of the nation to
Islam in a d 965 It is not credible that in such cases the
change of the court religion involved that of all the sub-
jects , doubtless large numbers remained Jews Now,
if any Jewish family possessed an authentic pedigree
* Cf Milman, “ History of Christianity, 11 158 Ed 1908

VOL XVI U

The Prospects of Zionism

298

whereby it traced itself to ancient Judaea, on the sup-
position that such a descent gave a claim to possession of
land, such family would have a claim. But since there are
no Jewish pedigrees of this kind, no one knows how many
centuries after the second exile the ancestors of any existing
Jewish family adopted Judaism- There may be some
families descended by the male line from the pre-Christian
Israelites — there may be many, or there may be none.
The claim of the modern Jews to Palestine is not therefore
capable of being based on heredity, but on the theory that
the maintenance of a particular cult constitutes a claim to
the possession of land.

This, then, is the principle whereon the Zionist claim to
Palestine is based. It is a dangerous one, for if religion
gives a claim to a country, as a writer in the Kaukab
observed, the Christians have also a claim to Palestine.
Sr. Paul argues that the "offspring of Abraham ” to whom
the promise was made was Jesus Christ and no one else,
and this is perhaps why the "History of the Crusades"
constantly talks of Palestine as “the heritage of Jesus
Christ." The Mohammedans, who suppose themselves to
be followers of Abraham’s religion, would put in their claim
too. Hence it is far safer not to think of religious lineage.
But, as has been seen, in the absence of authentic pedi-
grees, no one can say whether a particular Jew is descended
from an Israelite, or some Arab, Italian, Khazar, etc., who
at some time adopted Judaism. Dr. F. Bliss, than whom
no one knows Palestine better, tells us that the pious
orthodox Jews of Jerusalem regard political Zionism as
folly, if not blasphemy. " God,” they hold, “ is to bring
back the Jews in His own time and way without human
plan or assistance.”* This belief has the advantage of
rendering it unnecessary to pronounce on the unknowable.
It is by no means desirable to humble the strains of either
Jewish or Christian sermons and hymns wherein the glories
of God’s ancient people are extolled. From the practice
* F. J. Bliss, “ Religions of Syria,” p. 32a. 1912.

299

The Prospects of Zionism

initiated or followed by such patriotic Jews as Mordecai
(more correctly Marduki), Apollos, and Paul, of taking
names which were either distinctively pagan or at least not
Jewish, it might be inferred that those glories are more
recognized within than outside the place of worship ; the
reason for which they conceal their faces is somewhat
different from that of Moses. The glory of those who,
driven from one land, have founded a flourishing republic
in another has not been theirs. But even if their title
to gratitude were something greater than the occasional
production of a Joseph or a Nehemiah, of a man of letters
or of science, it would not affect the question of their
relation to Palestine.

Now Zionism must either mean something or nothing.
If it means what it meant before the war, it is a matter
which scarcely deserves the time of statesmen. During
some thirty years a number of agricultural Jewish colonies
were founded in Palestine, whose total population by 1914
amounted to some 1 1,000 persons ;* “the Turkish Govern-
ment was by no means unfavourable to Jewish development
in Palestine, and a change might very well be for the
worse.” These numbers do not appear very encouraging,
though one enthusiast argues that the slower the progress,
the surer it must be. The condition of the colonies is
painted in roseate colours by Zionist writers, but other
visitors are not in entire agreement. “ It is an interesting
commentary on the conditions of modern Palestine,” says
one very competent observer, t “that the only successful
colonies of Jewish Zionists are in places like the plains of
Sharon and Esdraelon and the highest part of Galilee,
rather than in Judaea or Lower Galilee, the homes of their
ancestors.” Some other travellers give less favourable
reports. J The figures given for 1894 are 5,672,$ in

* A. M Hyamson, 4 ‘ Palestine.” 1917.
t E. Huntington, “ Palestine and its Transformation ” 1912.

t See H. Rut, “Tent and Testament," p 112. 1907

§ Cumet, 41 Syne, Liban, et Palestine," p. 594.

300 The Prospects of Zionism

twenty years, then, these numbers just doubled, the rate of
yearly increase being not much more than 250, including
natural increase and immigration Of such figures states-
men can take no notice , and, indeed, Mr Hyamson says
plainly “The possibility of an independent Jewish state
cannot be discussed in the course of the present generation,
or at any date which either the writer or the reader can
expect to see ”* He adds that ‘ local autonomy is all that
the Jews of Palestine (does this mean the Zionists ? ) ask —
the development of the system which has been already
inaugurated ’ He docs, indeed, foresee a time when the
population of Palestine will become overwhelmingly
Jewish , but it is difficult to see why this should come
about If the Jews increase, the Moslems and Christians
are not likely to stop increasing

Zionism, then, as Mr Hyamson in his exceedingly
sensible work interprets it means nothing about which
statesmen need trouble themselves , the Jewish question in
Europe, if one exists, is scarcely affected by the annual
settlement of 250 Jfws in Palestine With other ex-
ponents it means something very much more considerable
Such an exponent is Mr Sokolow, whose ‘ History of
Zionism,' just published, has commendatory letters from
Mr Balfour, Lord Bryce and the late Sir M Sykes He
is an enthusiast who is pcipctuilly mounting thi pulpit,
and his project is far more like!) to excite enthusiasm, but
also vastly more dangerous than Mr Hyamson's It
amounts to nothing less than the establishment in Palestine
of a Jewish state, within which only Judaism should be
practised He quotes with approval the words of one

\L\ve& W. S iViYglox . “ Vta m&td mW tWt \.Vvev

should go to a country that was once Israel’s homestead,
where the Sabbath would be the Sabbath of all, and where
Yom Kjppur would be the day of abstention from food
throughout the country.”! This must mean that everyone
should observe Saturday as a day of rest, and everyone
* “Palestine,” p * 79 I9 , j. f “History of Zionism,” 1 *39

3oi

The Prospects of Zionism

fast on the Day of Atonement. Another enthusiast is
quoted with approval for the doctrine that the true way to
secure the rights of wandering Israelites (i e., Jews not in
Palestine) is to establish a Jewish state, capable of guard-
mg their interests as the rights of Englishmen abroad are
guarded by the British Government* In the face of the
figures that have been quoted Mr Sokolow asserts that
the Jewish masses will go to Palestine as soon as they have
the opportunity of doing so f

It must, indeed, be obvious that if Palestine be left to
itself the government will not be Jewish, because the Jews
are in a minority , they are somewhere between a seventh
and a tenth of the whole population If Palestine be
treated as a British possession, the Jews will be no better
off there than elsewhere in the British Empire— r e , they
will enjov the full privileges of the citizens of a free
country But if they are to enjoy special privileges in
Palestine, such as the right to substitute Saturday for the
Friday or the Sunday as the weekly day of rest, and to
enforce fasting on the inhabitants two parties have to be
considered , first the present inhabitants ol the country,
and next the Jews whom it is proposed to despatch thither
in masses.

With regard to the former, the} reject the idea of being
subjected to Jews or being swamped by Jewish immigra-
tion as an unprecedented outrage Some voices may have
been raised in Syria in favour of the Prench invasion, but
all Moslem and Christian communities are united against
the Zionist plan. The American commissioners heard
protests against it on every side, and a protest has been
sent to the Peace Conference

Certainly some of the Zionists have taken into considera
tion the present inhabitants of Syria The present writer
was at a banquet given in honour o r the taking of Jerusalem,
wmch was addressed by two Zionist orators One of
them, of some fame as a novelist, proposed that the present
* find., c 344, cf 242 t Jbtd t 246

302

The Prospects of Zionism

inhabitants “should be bought out, and told to go to
Arabia This scheme might serve as an expedient in a
romance, but scarcely elsewhere

The other speaker asserted that Palestine by improved
cultivation could easily maintain seven millions of in-
habitants in lieu of the million or thereabouts whom it at
present feeds This is entirely against the conclusions of
Mr Ellsworth Huntington, Professor of Geography in
Yale University, who maintains that the decline in the
population of the countiy is due not to misgovernment, but
to a decline in the rainfall and that even the raids of the
nomads on the settled population are due to this cause, and
vary inversely with the rain Nothing that man is yet
able to do would enable the people of Beersheba, and still
less of Aujeh, to raise good crops every year Ram is the
missing dement 1 he people of Ziza and Kastal showed
a commendable degree of initiative and energy when they
came to the ruins to settle No amount of energy on their
part could have raised a crop in 1909 and no amount of
engineering skill could enable them to obtain water for
irrigation except at a cost a hundred-fold too great No
Arab raids or difficulties occasioned by the government
have interfered with Beei sheba and Ziza in lecent times
If these are not enough turn to Jerash By universal
consent few races excel the Circassians in industry and
energy Por over a quarter of a century they ha\e h\ed
at Jerash, under special fat our of the government and with
large exemptions from taxation Yet what have the}
accomplished ? If the population should increase suffi-
ciently to fill only one of the theatres many of the in
habitants would find themselves face to face with
starvation *

The immigrant Jews, if in numbers sufficient to make
Palestine a Jewish state, would have to do as their supposed
ancestors undtr Joshua — make a clearance of the present
inhabitants In Joshua’s time there was no international

* “ Palestine and its Transformation,' p afta 1912

The Prospects of Zionism 303

morality, and the immigrants relied on supernatural aid
In our time the latter is unlikely to be furnished, and
where the nations have nothing to fear, they on the whole
support morality This last principle would not be in
favour of the forcible expropriation of the inhabitants of
Palestine or of any infringement of their rights in favour
of the Jews A Jewish invasion of Palestine would not,
like the French invasion of North Syria, be backed by
machine-guns , it would be fiercely resisted, and lead to
massacres and all other horrors

In the second place the Jews throughout the world have
something to say in the matter As early as 1840 ‘a
noble Lord, opposed to Her Majesty’s Ministers,” issued a
questionnaire containing the interesting query ‘ Would
the Jews of station and property be inclined to return to
Palestine, carry with them their capital, and invest it in the
cultivation of the land if by the operation of law and justice
life and property were rendered secure ? * Mr Sokolow
omits to state whether any reply was ever rect ived to this
question, other than solventur risu tabula In his opinion
those who are in favour of the return should force their
views on the others “It did not matter to the Lovers of
Zion (name of a Ziomstic society) that some wealthy Jews
did not wish for the national re birth , they simply emulated
careful and prudent physicians, who when they visit thur
patients do not ask them what they like best, but having
carefully studied the ailments of their patients order them
to take what they deem most necessary for them even
though it be not pleasing or acceptable f How well the
student of history knows this simile 1 Other people do not
approve our schemes, and so by well meant cutting or
burning we shall try to remove the disorder

Now the objection of numerous Jews to the ventilation
of schemes of this sort is apparently very sound What
the Great War has proved — though it should never have
been doubted — is that a man cannot be a citizen of two
* M History of Zionism, 1 1*7 f *46

304

The Prospects of Zionism

countries If an independent Jewish state were established
m Palestine (or elsewhere), every member of the Jewish
community should have the right to decide whether he
intends to remain a Frenchman German, American,
Englishman, etc, or whether he is to become a Judaean,
and therefore an alien in any country but Jud«ea Nations
have no gratitude Jud^a might be reconstituted to-day
by Great Britain and a few years later side with Great
Britain s enemies Itilian streets had been named after
President Wilson when the United States under his
presidency entered the war he gave some unpalatable
advice to Italy, and the streets were renamed Doubtless
those members of the community on whom the citizenship
of one country or another has been conferred, and who
have shared its jo^s and sorrows borne its buidens and
enjoyed its privileges, have no desire to throw it away
But this they must certainly do if they become citizens of
mother state Few things seemed to the present writer a
juster cause of gratification to the Fnglish in India than the
w ly wherein some Indians bo isted of English glories — of
“ whit we did it Waterloo and the like Allowed to feel
pride in the deeds of the mother country, they might be
relied upon to co operate in swelling that splendid record
England by giving them i pi ice in her empire had pro-
vided them with sorrn better causes of pride than the
myths of Rami and Arjun 1 And similar is the case of
Jews who havt been adopted by Great Britain and the
other European nations and b\ the United States They
enjoy the lustre of a past to which their own has nothing
comparable

Those who think the Biblical history of the Jews
glorious can either not have read the Bible or must
disbelieve it it represents them as the most hopeless
community that ever existed They had only to obey a
certain code and every law of nature was suspended in
their favour the sun would stop if they wanted it, the sea
would dry up, their enemies would be miraculously de-

The Prospects of Zionism 305

stroyed , only obey that code they would not. Only those
who (like the school of Wellhausen) regard their historians
as liars and their prophets as charlatans credit the Biblical
Jews with possessing the normal amount of wisdom and
virtue Their part in ancient history was so modest that
the inquisitive Hellenes never heard their name before
Alexander’s time Their post Biblical history consists
mainly of a series of expulsions from countries where they
had settled , however culpable their ejectors may have
been, it is impossible to avoid the inference that they failed
to make themselves beloved A ver> different record is
recalled to the mind by the mention of such names as the
British Empire, the United Netherlands, the United
States Eminent members of the Jewish community, who
have acquired wealth, power or f mie in a world which
gives nothing for nothing are unwilling to throw away
their acquired inherit ince while also unwilling to break
with the past of their race which if by no means glorious,
has much antiquarian interest Of these some, like the
late Baron Hirsch, have discour iged the Zionist move
ment none it would appear have encouraged it save as
an eleemosynary measure They know too that a state
governed by the Law of Moses would be a. hopeless
anachronism, such as no civilized man could endure ,
whereas a jewish state which abrogated the Law of Moses
would have no reason for existing

1 hat more voices were not raised by these able men in
deprecation of the paeans of triumph which Mr Balfour’s
letter drew forth is doubtless due to the unpopularity which
sensible forethought usually brings to those who exercise
it Mr Sokolow, however, records assertions made on the
occasion which he ought not to have left uncontradicted
The Right Hon George N Barnes a member of the War
Cabinet in a speech then delivered, said ‘ Palestine has
for three hundred years been under the tyranny of Ottoman
oppression * We have just heard the evidence of Mr
* “ History of Zionism, 11 134

306 The Prospects of Zionism

Hyamson that the Turkish Government was by no means
unfavourable to the Jewish colonists. “The Turkish
authorities first set up order in the towns, then in the
provinces,’ is a judgment of Ottoman rule in Palestine
recorded by a high authority * * * § It is true that the Rev
Dr. Jessupt declares that the Zionist movement was
antagonized by the Ottoman Government and by the
fellahin of the rural districts of Palestine, but as he adds
that the Rabbis, embittered by the fiery persecution
against the Jews in Russia and other parts of Europe,
are extremely hostile to Christianity in every form, his
evidence, which in any case extends only to the unmigiant
Jtws, cannot very well be adduced The fact is that the
Ottoman Government (like most Islamic states) befriended
the Jews when ever) one else was against them When
the fanatics commenced that rum of Spam whence it
has not recovered to this da), and expelled the Jews,
they were received “ not unwillingly ” by the Ottoman
Government, under whose aegis they rose, both at the
capital and elsewhere, to opulence and importance “ The
tyranny of Ottonun oppression 1 is unknown to persons
acquainted with the condition of Palestine, who fully
recognize the defects of I urkish rule In what appears
to be the work in our language on Palestine, which is
based on the profoundest acquaintance with the country, J
the references to the Turkish Government are ordinarily
appreciative If the people are split up into little parties,
who cannot in consequence combine against oppression or
to secure better go\ eminent, he admits that this is no part
of the policy of the Turks, who indeed have exercised
their authority to prevent fights between factions $
Evidence to the same effect could be cited from foreign
works by men well acquainted with the country. But, in

* Ph Baldensperger, 4 The Immovable East, ’ p a 9* 1913

t “Fifty three Years in Syria," 11 , 657. 1910

l Rev C T Wilson, “Peasant Life in the Holy Land 1906

§ Pp 78 and 80

The Prospects of Zionism 307

any case, the service rendered by the Ottoman Government
to the Jews in their most evil days should not be entirely
forgotten

Zionism, as expounded in Mr Sokolow’s history, is to
be dreaded on a variety of grounds It transfers from the
place of worship to the market-place ideas which, though
suitable and edifying m the former, are incongruous and
subversive of order in the latter It threatens the rights of
those Israelites who are happily domiciled in Europe and
America It menaces Palestine with civil war It presages
the tarnishing of the chief laurel won by Great Britain in
the great struggle It involves gross ingratitude to the
Moslem powers who stood by the Jews when Europe was
under the dominion of fanatical sacerdotalism “ \t times
of national crisis visionanes are of all men the most
dangerous, intent on the pursuit of unattainable ideals,
they shut their eyes to realities, and instead of facing
danger, prefer to ignore it *

* Mrs Arthur \\ ebster “ The French Revolution p 57 1919

30 8

THE ECONOMIC SITUATION OF THE
ARMENIAN REPUBLIC

By Gkigor Aoababian

Tur Peace Treaties signed at Versailles and St Germain
impose upon Germany and Austria a regime in regard to
ports, waterways and railways that will mark an important
stage, almost a revolution, in international relations By
that regime, based on the principle of the League of
Nations the Allies secured for the small nations of Eastern
Europe free transit across the territories of their former
oppressors, who otherwise would undoubtedly force them
to accept the most onerous conditions

In no lesser degree than to Poland, Czecho-SIovakia, and
Yugo-Slavia, freedom of trafhc is indispensable to the
economic independence of the Armenian Republic a state
without free iceess to the sea and surrounded by neighbours
that are almost all enemies

In regard to transit exportation, and importation, this
republic, unlike its Slav sisters, is still under the old
regime of the force and good pleasure of Turkey, Georgia,
and Azerbcidjan

Apart from Turkey, whose frontier is completely closed
to the Armenian Republic the States of Georgia and Azer
beidjan, although they have not entirely barricaded their
frontiers or closed the sole railway-line connecting across
their territories Armenia with the Black Sea and the
Caspian, have nevertheless declared the following pro
hibitions

(i) Absolute prohibition of the transit of goods from
Armenian sources in the direction of the Black Sea and
the Caspian.

The Economic Situation of the Armenian Republic 309

(2) Limitation of the transit of goods from abroad to
flour, oil, medicines, and a few other articles of prime
necessity These exceptions were imposed upon Georgia
and Azerbeidjan as a result of the intervention of the
commander of the Allied forces, and have preserved from
famine and typhus the population of the Armenian Republic
and the refugees who fled the Turkish massacres At the
same time, by a convention signed by the Georgian and
Azerbeidjan governments, these republics grant each other
the free transit which they refuse to Armenia

These countries, by the ingenious combination of this
transit prohibition and limitation with a masterpiece of
customs invention called ‘ exchange of merchandise,
encompass the ruin of Armenian commerce This system
of “ exchanges ” is, in its mam lines, as follows . Armenian
products destined for the European or Russian markets and
sent by the Transcaucasian Railway must of necessity cross
Georgia or Azerbeidjan they are subject first of all to a
duty on entering these countries, and on leaving a special
authorization is required, together with the payment of
export dues

Moreover this authorization carries with it the obligation
for the exporter to import into these countries goods that
are needed there, and also to deposit a sum as guarantee
of the fulfilment of such obligation, the deposit often re ich
ing or exceeding 20 per cent ad zaloiem Similar for
malities taxes, and conditions, are imposed upon foreign
goods for Armenia crossing Georgia and Azerbeidjan,
excepting only those articles for which free transit has been
obtained by the Allies 1 intervention

We will not enter here into a detailed examination of
this ingenious system, of its modifications, and of its history
provisional conventions have been arranged lately with
Georgia and Azerbeidjan which have bad the effect of
raising the economic blockade of Armenia However, it is
too much to expect that such palliatives can assure a return
to the normal in commerce, industry, and agriculture, or an
alleviation of the financial situation.

310 The Economic Situation of the Armenian Republic

In view of this serious economic situation it may be well
to enumerate summarily a few of the products and resources
of the Armenian Republic.

At present its territory consists of the Governments of
Erivan and Kars, and certain parts of the Governments of
Tiflis and Elizavetpol The total length of its railway
system is 366 miles.

To take only the Government of Erivan , this nucleus of
the republic numbered before the war 1,071,560 inhabitants
within an area of 15,625 square miles; 90 per cent, of the
population are engaged in agriculture and cattle-breeding,
and live in the villages , the remaining 10 per cent, dwell in
the towns and are engaged in commerce and industry. The
total length of its roads is 440 miles ; that of its railways,
the construction of which was not begun till 1900, is 265
miles. The traffic on the Erivan railway system reached
400,000 tons annually.

1 Agriculture . — We give below a few figures in regard
to the agricultural production of this government for the

tr 1912.

1 Cereals

750,000 acres

300,000 tons

2. Cotton

57,500 „

8,000 „

3 Grapes

25,000 „

60,000 ,,

4 Rice

4,000 „

10,000 „

413,000 hectahtres

5 Wine

6 Brandy

100,000 degrees

7 Alcohol, etc

100,000 ,,

To understand how the agricultural development of this
government depends on the extension and cultivation of
cotton, rice and vines, the function of irrigation, it suffices
to observe the equality of the monetary value of the pro-
duction of the 750,000 acres of cereals on the one hand,
and of the 92,500 acres of cotton, rice, and vines. More
than 1,500,000 acres of grazing land along the banks of the
Arax could be transformed into plantations, irrigation being
assured by the rivers within the government. Agricultural
development in this region is thus both a financial and a
technical problem.

The Economic Situation of the Armenian Republic 31 1

2. Cattle breeding — The following figures relating to
the year 1912 represent conditions in the Government of
Envan

Oxen and cows

Sheep and goats

Horses

Mules

Camels

Wool

437 092 head
921 729
36 065 ,

1 °55
6 056 ,

1 500 tons

3 — The mineral and metallurgical production of the
Armenian Republic corresponds to the following averages
for the period 1911 1913

Copper ore

12 mines

1 25 000 tori

Iron pyntts

2

6 000 ,

Salt

5

25 400 ,,

Copper metal

6 factories

S 200 »

Most of these exploitations are without railway communi
cations Compared with th< totil production of 1 ranscau
casia the figures represent Copptr, 55 per cent salt
100 per cent iron pyrites, 60 per cent

Besides these proofs of a modest mineral and metallurgical
activity representing the available reserve n sources in
minerals of the Armenian Republic the latter s potential
mineral wealth consists, according to the statistics of the
Mines Administration, of 450 minefields distributed as
follow s

M nefield*

1 I ead and silver 60

2 Gold 10

3 Copper 210

4 / me 11

5 Molybdene 3

6 \ntimony 1

7 Cobalt 6

8 Manganese 1 6

9 Iron 58

10 Chrome 1

1 1 Arsenic 8

12 Iron pyrites 23

1 3 Sulphur 9

14* Graphite 8

Minefield*.

15 Coal and lignite 47

16 Juyet 2

17 Combustible schiste 4

18 Peat 9

19 Oil (petro eum) 6

20 Ozochente 1

' 21 Salt 32

22 Salt springs 6

23 Carbonate of soda 1

24 Glauber salt 1

25 Borax 3

26 \lumite 15

450

312 The Economic Situation of the Armenian Repubhc

The mines now worked do not represent 5 per cent of
the above total

It might be noted here that the stock of salt available m
the republic is about 67,506,000 tons

4 Hydraulic Power — The rivers of the Armenian
Republic have been little studied as regards their hydraulic
power. Almost all are of the swift-running, torrential
category, and, therefore, appropriate for industrial exploita-
tion. The hydrometrical and topographical information
collected by the administration of the country enables the
approximate minimum and average powers of twenty-five of
the rivers to be estimated at 2 756,030 horse-power and
7,165,678 horse power respectively The latter figure cor-
responds if we calculate on the basis of 1 kilogramme (a
little over 2 lbs ) per horse hour or horse-power, to an
annual production of 60000,000 tons of coal

These resouicts and products which constitute the only
real basis of the economic independence of Armenia are
paralyzed at present as a result of the control exercised by
Turkey, Georgia, and A/crbcidjan, over A r memas com-
munications with the sei She is unable to export her
merchandise to Lurope and obtain in exchange the meins
of acquiring even a tew articles of immediate necessity the
transit of which, as a measure of exception and favour, is
secured to her b> the intervention of the Allies

While recognizing the great moral value of this humam
tarian action that has saved Armenia from famine and
facilitated the fight against typhus, one is obliged to admit
its inadequateness 1 ransport to foreign countries being
blocked, our pioducts accumulate in the country or de-
teriorate (cotton wines, etc) Some are sold at hopelessly
low prices (skins, wool) , while industry is stopped, mines
and factories closed, and the remunerative cultivation,
cotton, replaced by that of cereals, etc It is the road to
ruin. The country can only be saved from final bank-
ruptcy by extending to Transcaucasia the regime of right
and equity established by the Peace Conference for the
ports, waterways, and railways of Eastern Europe

The Economic Situation of the Armenian Republic 313

The problem of the application of the regime in question
to the Armenia Republic must be considered from the
double point of view of immediate necessities and the con-
ditions of its economic future

1 Immediate Necessities —Under Russian domination,
Armenia always enjoyed free transit on the Transcaucasian,
the sole railway connecting it with the Black Sea and the
Caspian, including the ports of Batoum and Baku Free-
dom of traffic, exempt from all special privileges, should be
-e established on these railways and at these ports under
the guarantee of in internation il regime in conformity with
the stipulation of the Treat) of Versailles Vital for the
\rmenun Republic such inte rn ition ih/ation corresponds
also with the interests of Persia as well as with those of
Turkt) Georgia, and A/erbeidjan md other n igh hours
In order to noid fresh and graver complications, its appli-
cation is urgent and should not be dfliyed [lending the
olution necessard) distant of the Russian md lurkish
questions

Liuural Solution — 1 rom the p jint of view of the
\rmenian Republic within its present limits, the problem
of free tnnsit to the Black Sea and the C ispi m presents
quite a different aspect if oneenvisa s es the general solution
as being that which corresponds best to the interests of
the country and to its technical needs A consideration of
distances and gradients leads to the conception of a new
railway system the T rans Armenian, crossing the territory
of the republic from east to west, through the valleys
of the Arax and Chorok, instead of turning from the centre
over the Anticaucasus to Tiflis as is the case now, and
joining the Transcaucasian in a Tartaro Georgian Valley

1 Direction Eruan Black Sea — Lxisting line, Erivan-
Tiflis Batoum, length, 450 miles. Proposed line, Lrivan
Hassan Kalla-Chorok- Batoum length, 300 miles Dif
ference, 150 miles

2 Direction . Envan-Caspian — Existing line, Erivan-
Tiflis Baku, length, 577 miles Line under construction,

3 H The Economic Situation of the Armenian Republic

Erivan - Julfa - Baku , length, 380 miles Difference,
197 miles

The superiority of the Trans- Armenian is even more
marked, compared with the Transcaucasian for transit to
Persia

1 Direction Julfa BlacL Sea — Existing line, Julfa-
Erivan-Tifhs-Bdtoum length, 560 miles Proposed line,
Julfa-Envan-River Arax-Hassan Kala-Chorok Batoum ,
length, 400 miles Difference, 160 miles

2 Direction Julfa-Caspian — Existing line, Julfa-
Erivan -1 iflis Baku , length, 730 miles Line under con-
struction, Julfa-Baku , length 255 miles Difference,
475 miles

Consideration of slopes leads to the same conclusion in
favour of a 1 rans- Armenian which (1) would follow the
principal valleys of the great rivers of the country, the
Arax and the Chorok offering, compared with all other
directions, a minimum of gradients , and (2) would only
have to cross one mountain chain between the Caspian and
the Black Sea

In the present railway system the section Rrivan-Tiflis-
Baku crosses one chain and the section Envan-Tiflis-
Batoum, two 1 he mountainous portions, traced through
secondary valleys and steep gorges offer average gradients
of 184 per 1000, and even 206 per 1,000, while the
maximum gradients reach 28 6 per 1,000

From a technical point of view, the present system has
no other justification than its existence , it is an economic
and political anomaly that has hindered the progress of the
country The construction of a Trans-Armenian is a neces-
sity of the near future it will have the advantage of
affording direct connection with the sea by a short and
convenient line to the great agricultural, mineral, hydraulic,
and other riches of the country, riches that are dormant
because of the lack of perfected means of communication.
At the same time it will create across Armenia a powerful
artery of transit for the markets of Persia, the Caspian Sea,
and the great oil centre of Baku

fhe Economic Situation of the Armenian Republic 315

The route of the Trans Armenian includes, at its two
extremities, the Black Sea and the Caspian, regions that
are coveted by Turkey and by States that have already
seized the Transcaucasian, Georgia and Azerbeidjan The
latter extends its exaggerated claims as far as Julfa and
even Erivan •

When the time comes for the definitive settlement of the
destinies of these regions, no matter to whom they m ly be
allotted the attribution of a zone necessary for the con
•-truction of the Trans- Armenian and its international^
tion must be considered as vital guarantees of the inde
pendence and future of the \nnenian Republic

3*6

THE CHINESE ON THEMSELVES
Bv E H P \ KK I K

Modfrn China A Poi uicai Sudy By Sih gung Cheng ma, bsc,
(Tcon) I ellow of the Royal I cononrw Society (Oxford The
Clarendon J ress) 1919 Price 6b 6d
Thf Foreign 1j ade of Chin \ Ty Chong Su See, ph n Published
under the auspices of the China Society of America ( Longmans ,
Green and Co )

1 he first author tells us in his short preface that this book is an attempt to
deal with some of the important problems wh ch confront the Chinese
statesman his hope has been to give a true picture and to suggest
constructive schemes he has tried to avoid patriotic bias and to discuss
polities with disinterestedness 11 is work has been interrupted by the

Peace Conference in Pans, and (presumably at the time he dates his
Preface August 1919) he is leaving for America while these j ages go to
press, and has to entrust the work of making in index to his publishers
Amongst those to whom he lxj. rcsses gratitude for help are \ iseount
Bryce and V iseount Burnham Sir 1 rant is 1 1 iggott (late Chief Justice
of Hongkong) Dr \ k Wellington koo Chinese Minister at
Washington and l eace Conference pie npotentiary and othtrs

It will be remembered that in the Asiaiic Remew for July last attention
was drawn m a paper entitled 1 1 aw mid other keforms in China to a
flood of pamphlets some anonymous which were bung discharged at
the British public by the excited Chinese politicians in I ondon, and
which by reason of their denunciatory style probably av ailed little But
Mr Sih gung C hong— / e , Ch t ng Si keng in the I eking form — has in
this instance managed to provide us with a really fair and interesting book,
well thought out, and extremely judicious in tone Part I (pp 1 146)
treats of the Historical C oncqition of Chinese Government the Political
Situation since the Revolution of 1911 Constitution making and
Provincial Government It is in this part that the kindly help of Lord
Bryce seems most evident for it is quite impossible that any Oriental —
unlikely even that any frenchman German, or Russian— could have,
unaided composed English with such vigour and precision, not to mention
the frequent allusions to Aristotle, De Tocqueville, Bagshot, John Stuart
Mill, Viscount Morley and many other constitutional writers ancient and
modem , not to mention, again, the manifestly thorough acquaintance with
Roman Law, International Law, and the American Constitution, w all
of which subjects Lord Bryce is, of course, notoriously past master The
Chinese Itng ch'ih, or slicing alive (p 119), is not, however, correctly

The Chinese on Themselve

3 f 7

translated by “ lynching after death, ' however tempting the quasi allitera-
tion may be in fact, a few years ago a photographic picture of a prisoner
who had been thus mutilated was published in the Astatu: Quarter /j
Review Probably if Mr Cheng had been able to revise his final proofs,
we should not have such eyesores as “ShaoShin district” (p 120), and
u Skenkin province ” (p 136)

Part II covers p 147 to 298, and embraces an Historical Sketch of
China’s foreign Relations, Extra terntorialit) Tariff Administration,
Concessions and Investments, New Problems since the War The sub
heads of the last named are the Kiaochow Question, China in the War,
Chinese Labour, the Ascendency of Japan, and the Policy of Americi
All this is very interesting, well written, and on the whole moderate and
fair, but the magic of Lord Bryces wisdom is naturally not often vjsiblt
here By “ Parathusians {June Mrs Milaprop) presumably Parthians
are meant (p 147), and it was Sir Robert Hart, not Sir Harry Parkes
whose good offices (p 155) squared the franco Chinese difficulty, as is
fully explained by Mr Morse (“ Period of Submission, p 366) It was
in August 1900, not 1901 (p 164), tint the Allies occupied Peking
Switzerland should have been enumerated amongst the non treaty Powers
(p 177) kulangr// (not sham) is the \nioy island alluded to (p 183)

A serious slip o<curs on p 210, where the Anglo German loans oi
^16,000,000 eaeh are given as 1 ,000,000 each 1 he word “ flota

tton is incorrectly spelt “floatation (p 220) Perhaps the only place
in the book where Mr Cheng indulges 111 anything a[ \ loaching bluster
is on p 234, when he says ‘ the time may come when the possession ot
heavy guns ind eruisers will no lot ger enable foreigners to disregard
the sentiments ot the C hintse As a matte, of fad, very many
“ foreigners, the writer amongst thtm, re b ml the sentiments of the Chinese
with great sympathy but since \ uan Shi-Lais death they have played
their diplomatic cards so badly, there has been so much corruption
personal ambition, and squabbling in (lovernmcnt units, that (as indeed
Mr Cheng confesses, p 298) 1 for all thest troubles China herself is to
blame it is only through the restoration of her internal unity and the
increase of her material power that China will maintain her independence
without being guaranteed by any other Power

I hen comes Part III, pp 299315 on the Political Outlook and
and foreign Policy, followed by t/uces jus/ijicatnes in appendices (pp 316
364), and the Index A map might well have been added, if only barely
to illustrate the place names occurring in the test

The second is somewhat a bulkier work to look at, and at first sight
clumsier to handle, than Mr Sih gung Cheng s neat effort which we
have just noticed But the number of pages is about equal, the
quality of paper is much lighter, and there is no heavy cloth binding,
so that as the historical and economical ground covered is much the same,
it would not be unfair to describe the one book as being a complement
to or second version of the other There is a slight literary difference,
however, in the respect that Mr Chon b Su See adopts the official or

3*8 The Chinese on Themselves

Webstenan American spelling, m which words ending m our — such as
favour, labour, rancour — omit the u t and in which participles where the
accent is not on the penultimate — such as in “ travelling ” — oum one of the
double letters before the tng Then there are such class words as woolen,
gild {for trading guild), center, fiber, marvelous (why not marvelos?)
focusing, program, etc , all of which are apt to give a slight jar or twitch
to the genuine British Lion’s mental tail, and which, moreover, seem to
have been abandoned of recent years as unpractical (for school and text
examination purposes abroad) by many of the best American waters — for
instance, Morse Morse m his “ International Relations ” — te , “Period
of Conflict (up to 1860), “Period of Submission’ (1861 1893), and
“ Period of Subjection (1894-1911), practically tells us all Mr See (or Siy
as he spells it in his own dedication) has to say, at least up to the revolu
tion of 1 91 1 Our present author lumps Mr Morses two last periods in
one, styling that one “Period of Foreign Domination’ (1861 1918), and
thereby bringing us up in Chinese affairs to the end of the Great War
Mr Sec, who quotes an earlier work of Morse, Trade and Administration
of ( Inna ’ (repeating in his quotation Morse s apparent misprint in both
editions of 1905 for 1805), does not seem to have had before him these
most valuable and recent works of Mr Morse upon “ International
Relations, although he quotes a passage from another author citing an
estimate made by Mr Morse in 1910, the publishers date of the Period
of Conflict ' Although in Part I of the work now under re\iew, con
taming foui chapters about early trade intercourse prior to and after the
arrival of Europeans the voice is the voice of Mr bee, the prompting
hand in the background is evidently here and there that of the somewhat
patriotically biassed lobby man of Washington, and “nonconformist
conscience ” at that It is not exactly that the words are hostile, or even
lacking in courtesy, but from first to last there is running through the
book a subtle leitviotn (like that in 1 annh tuser) — a sort of anti British
prejudice creeping through the noisiest as well as the faintest “ music,
but m such wise as to surprise and stimulate the ear at every turn J he
following passage fiom the Preface gives the general lead “They would
not have censured China for the Opium War if they knew how the
British forced the opium vice upon her with the help of their Government ”
“Chinese Account of the Opium War is the title of a book published in
1888 by the present writer, showing clearly that a distinguished member
of the Chinese official body, speaking representatively, then took a much
fairer view so fifty jears later dots Mr Morse, who says (“ International
Relations, 1910, p 551) “Of the \im.rican merchants in China some
took as active a part in the opium trade as they could — 1 e , during 1834
to 1S60 And (to cite an example) the writer, once crossing the Pacific
(1877) m an \mencan steamer, was told by one of the officers (in reply
to the remark that ^50 a month seemed rather low pay for his rank) that
he made much more than that by smuggling opium each trip. Mr See
(p 134) also admits that Americans were implicated England and
British India in their connection with the trade have certainly not much
to boast of in the matter of failing to assist in its extinction when a chance

The Chinese on Themselves 319

came in the 1842 Treaty, but Mr See’s reiterated reproaches come with
rather a bad grace in view of the self-sacrificing and economical efforts made
during the past twelve years by both the British and the Indian Govern
ments , and this the more in that a pack of corrupt and greedy nvAuns,
or military viceroys, are at ihts very moment doing their utmost to reintro
duce the wholesale cultivation of the poppy in most ot the western
provinces, where the well meant zeal of President Hsu and his Peking
Government cannot bring itself to bear upon them

An admirable feature in the “ 1 oreign Trade of China ’ is the carefully
tabulated marshalling together of essential facts and sensibly grouped
statistics m Part II , which consists mainly of two long chapters, V and
VI , the latter being on the “ Development of the foreign Trade ” Of
special interest are the remarks upon Exchange, Balance of Trade, etc ,
and, in this connection, it might not be inappropriate here to refer
the unprofessional leader to Sir Charles \ddis’s recently republished
Shanghai pocket booklet entitled “Daily Exchange Quotations which
goes luminously and thoroughly to the toot of the matter lhe seventh
and last chapter, 4 Summary and ( onclusion, is a vigorous appeal of
fifty pages in favour of justice to l hina the chief points ire, of course,
the abolition of extra territoriality a free hand to (. hina in the matter of
tariff reform, the unnccessinly continued existence of foreign |>ost offices
the tm/uum frdus under wl ich ( hinas own manufactures aie strangled
in favour of foreign imports, the pioi osed tot il extinction of die Boxer
indemnities and so on Hert Mr Chong Sn See stnki s out fiercely with
immense vigour, ind as a fortnsu effort or piece of special pleading his
appeal is unexceptionable, in spite of its numerous su^jestio and suppressio
features But China has many friends and admirers — the present reviewer
heartily one of them — who would like to see her npidly reinstated in the
world position to which her 4,000 years of unquestionable political leader
ship in the Far Past entitle her 1 he only thing is, how can we act corpor-
ately until China incor[iorates herself? With whom is it possible to arrange
any permanent reform so long as one half of China w ill not recognize, or even
con c m to negotiate with, the other so long *»s one section burns millions
sterling worth of opium whilst other sections fill their private, and also
their official, pockets with the proceeds of native grown poppy, secretly
encouraged ? It is true that the word seems to have been passed round
in ail provinces that foreigners must not be ill treated , it is also true that
in many matters justice, prisons, and appeals, have been improved and
reorganized But how is it that we still hear by every mail of torlure used
in this or that province to extort confessions, of ferocious and illegal
punishments and irresponsible tyranny on the part of many military
governors ? How can we, or any othe* Power, give China a fre e hand in
the matter of her own finance when the only part of her finance which is
a success and sustains her for the moment is that part (customs and salt)
mcorruptibly administered by the very foreigner — the dangerous English,
in fact — she charges with strangling her? Mr Chong Su See, in his
anxiety to conciliate his American friends, sometimes seems a little
inconsistent For instance, p 291 “ Unlike all the other foreigner*, the

320

The Chinese on Themselves

Americans have always enjoyed the goodwill of the Chinese people.”
And again, p. 350 “ The reason why Chinese are invariably anxious to

do business with the United States is because they know that American
capital and enterprise in China are devoid of all political designs ” But
per contra , p. 366, “ Chinese laborers are excluded by law from the
United States and its possessions, and those that are expressly exempt —
merchants, students, and travelers — art. subjected to the humiliations of
minute inquisitions into their character, and of anthropometric measure-
ments of their person, for the purpose of ascertaining that they are not
laborers under camouflage In the State of California, Chinese

children are forbidden to attend the schools for white children ” On
p. 382 we read "Of all the gieat Powers which have declared that they
want China to become a strong and virile nation, able to maintain her
own place in the world, there is only one, it is to be frankly admitted,
which actually desires such a consummation, and that is the United
States of America America has never committed any act of aggression
m China, nor has she ever attempted to secure unfair and exclusive com-
mercial privileges then ’ What ibout Americas attack upon Korea in the
summer of 1871, when, according to Longford, “hundreds of the Koreans
were mowed down by the Remington rifles, shell, and shrapnel”? This was
conducted by Minister Lowe of Peking i he action of the Americans in
Honolulu, Manama, and the Philippines proves that even America has
found the mailed fist useful upon occasion How is it that the on’y
mention of America’s attack upon Peking in 1900 and her joining in
exacting "humiliating penalties” only occurs in a casual footnote?
“ I he United States share (pp 215 216) “was 11532939055, tins
amount was later found to be more than enough to recoup tl c expenses
of the American expedition and the claims of American subjects ”
President Roosevelt is certainly to be credited with a conscientious amende
honorable to China eight years later, notwithstanding the precautionary
condition that the money should be used for the dispatch of her youth
to the United Stahs to receive a modern education r I he writer would
like to see Great Britain do the same thing with her balance owing but
certainly if she did so, it would not be because she had originally asked
for more than was due, nor would she deprive China of the right to choose
her own universities abroid, though, on the other hand, she would
certainly not trust any tuchnns or stlf seeking politicians with the handling
of the funds in any form As the excellent \ iceroy, I iu K'un yi, once
remarked “ I find, Mr. Consul, that the British authority , though at times
seemingly harsh, is invariably just.’ Per contra on p 223 Mr Chong Su
See remarks “ As a protest against the unjust treatment of the Chinese
m the United States a boycott of American goods was organized in the
summer of 1905. ”

In spite, however, of the snappish Hearst-cum Valera tone of some of
Mr. Chong Su See’s Eminences gnses, his work is really extremely valuable,
and the review of trade (pp 270 337) the most masterly precis of useful
facts we have ever come across. For this the hearty thanks of commercial
men interested in the Far East must be due to the China Soacty of

The Chinese on Themselves

3 21

America and to the Political Science Faculty of Columbia University . It is
to be noted that most, if not all, of the Chinese who have been inundating
Europe and America, dunng the Paris Conference, with their political
claims and views, are southerners , not one prominent northern statesman
of mark seems to have been smitten with the cacovihcs Doubtless the
reason partly is that the north as a whole is in a general sense conserva-
tive, solid, imbued with an historical sense, cautious, conciliatory, and
prudent The southerners, taken as a whole, are not by descent pure
Chinese of the old stock, apart from the fact that half the population of
southwest China is still actually "barbarian" (i t , Miao, \ ao, Shan,
Lolo, Kachin, Tibetan, etc ), the temperament is more fickle, less loyal to
what maybe called the Corfucian idea, less confident in its own historical
value, and less experienced in the arts of government, management of
Tibetan and Tartar races, and so on Moreover, all Chinese diplomacy,
even m the north, is apt to be shifty, as Mr Chong Su bee himselt
admits (p 265) “China’s attitude m the European struggle, although
neutral, was inclined towards Germany during the first part of the
■ onflict , ’ and he himself shows in several places an inclination to sow as
much discord as possible between Japan and America (<■ q , pp 250, 379)
It is doubtful whether, with the disturbing influences of foreign intrigue and
ambition to distract them, the Chinese will lvci tmst each other as a
whole community Having in vitw the multiplicity of dialects, the local
feeling, the clashing of maritime and agricultural interests, differing
temperament, local characteristics, and so on, wl shall probably, before
long, all have to come to the conclus’on that salvati m must lie in the
direction of a federated empire — for, as with the German Rtuh , that word
is really not inconsistent with the word Republic Ehe mysteries of
plural voting, direct or indirect representation, forms of election, and so
on, arc matters that will probably assume a natural aid unforced growdh of
their own Each province (taken roughly) originally was a kingdom, and
this up to 2,000 years ago, so that each still preserves a measun of its old
idiosyncrasies The President at Peking (or cEevvm_rL.) should of course
be 111 sole charge of foreign affairs, the movements of the army and the
navy, the post office, telegraphs, customs, salt gabelle, the promulgation of
laws, matters affecting Chinas credit, and so on Each province might
well be trusted with Home Rule “of a sort What that sort is to be,
how the revenues are to be apportioned, and how the Governors are to be
elected or appointed, are matters most ably discjsseci by Mr Chong Su
See as well as by Mr bih gung t heng It would he purposeless, not to
say presumptuous, to argue out each point made by them at this stage.
These two Chinese gentlemen, presumably with carefully selected foreign
assistance, have meanwhile provided u c with plenty of food for thought in
its raw material form , how that fo jd is to be best cooked and most
suitably served up, time has yet to show

The get-up of Mr. Sec's book is quite good, and there are very few
misprints , but the sketch-map is very poor and gives no clear idea of the
railway progress already achieved Sir Robert Bredon’s name is con-
sistently misspelt Bred/n, and Sir Thomas Wade, throughout whose long

322

The Chinese on Themselves

ministry both the Chinese abroad and the Americans in China had many
unobtrusive kindnesses to thank him for, does not appear m the index —
if indeed in the text — at all On p 285 have should be “ has fallen
off” Tientsin (p 265) must be divided Tien-tsin, not Tientsin
“ Kongkun market ’ (p 200) is quite an imaginary place , possibly
Kumchuk is meant Mmdez (p 103) should be Mendez Them
(bottom of p 100) should be it These trifling slips are about all that
occur in Mr See s excellent book

* * * * *

Personal Addendum 1 should not like it to be thought that I entertained,
or was even to be } rovoked into expressing, the faintest anti American
sentiments but I cannot well remain silent when I believe my countrymen
are being unfairly attacked in an unsportsmanlike spirit by way of contrast to
United Stales v irtuc An American missionary, the Rev Sidney L Guhck,
writes as follows in the Chinese Recorder of Shanghai, under date January,
1920 1 1 cw American ( hristians know that for thirty years Amenca has

been violating our treaties with China Yet all know that California

passed an Anti Alien Land law I hirty years ago the Scott Act was

passed Senator Sherman said that it was ‘ one of the most vicious laws
that have passed in my time in Congress ’ The Geary I aw, even

more unreasonable and drastic, was passed in 1892 judge hield of

the United States Supreme Court said ‘ It must be conceded that
the Act of 1888 is in contravention of the treaty of 1868, and of the
supplemental treaty of 1880 ’ . lhe success of Christian work m

China increasingly depends on the treatment we give to t hinese in America
Oriental indignation and resentment at unfair and humiliating
treatment do not constitute a mental attitude favourable to the acceptance
of Occidental religion ”

In the same January number the world renowned Chinese (foreign
trained) anti plague phy sici in Dr \\ u I len teh writes ‘Has not the
time come when demociacy might be practised to a greater extent in
the relations between foreigners and Chinese, especially missionaries and
Chinese? Quite ftequently one hears of equitable treatment being

refused to ( hinese graduates at foreign colleges Only the other day

a veiy accomplished Chinese lady on her return home from the States
was placid on iht same „nde as ordinary helpers who had not been
educated abroad

Americans in China were only too glad in the sixties and eighties to avail
themselves of the powerful and disintuested British arm, and I myself on
one occasion received the official thanks of President Arthur for prompt
and effective services thus rendered mentioning this fact to a colleague a
year later, I found that he also had received a United States President’s
official thanks for assisting " pious Americans ” m quite another province.
The Columbia University has surreptitiously done an ill service to
President Wilson in working up what looks even more like an anti Japanese
campaign than an anti English campaign in the otherwise excellent
statistical and historical book now under notice

E H .P.

323

JAPANS POLICY IN SIBERIA
By Umaya

J vian has alwavs adopted, or perhaps could not but elect to
adopt, towards Russia a defensive attitude Russia’s ambi-
tion for territorial aggrandizement towards the Far East,
the legacy of Peter the C/reat, which culminated in the
Russo-Japanese \\ ar in 1904-5 h id been a constant menace
to the peace and repose of the Orient 1 here is also every
reason to believe that German) h id alwa) s sought to egg
Russia on to turn her attention to the 1 ir East, which
otherwise would have reverted to the Balkan Peninsula
However, the fiteful Russo J ipanese War brought the
German intrigue to grid

When the late Great W r ar broke out Russia and Japan,
the quondam foes were frit nds, ind stood together in
common cause with the rest of the A^ies Japan lent
Russia £22 000,000 and sent to her irrns and munitions
to the value of ,£7,000000 to fight Germany and Austria
But then came the Russian Ki \ olution of 1917 and Japan,
in full sympathv with the Russi m people, prayed for a
speedy re establishment of order in Russia, and for a healthy
development of her national life On the other hand, how-
ever Germany was not slow to take advantage of the
chaotic and defenceless situation into which great Muscovy
was suddenly hurled and, being bent on consolidating her
hold on that countr), evrn schemed steadily to extend her
activities to the Russian Tar Eastern possessions In the
meantime the desire of the Czecbo-Slovak troops in Russia
to come to France to fight on the Western Front was made
known , but the only route they could take was through
Siberia, Naturally, the Governments of the Central Empires

324 Japan's Policy in Siberia

racked their wits to put impediments in their way. There
were freely enlisted among the Russian forces German and
Austro-Hungarian prisoners, who anomalously enough
practically assumed command. Furthermore, there was con-
siderable fear that the enormous amount of munitions and
war materials which had been supplied by the Allies, and
was stored up in Vladivostok and its vicinity, would be
carried away for the ultimate use of Germany and Austria.

It was at this critical moment that japan decided to
despatch her troops to Siberia in August, 1918, in agree-
ment with the United States and other Allies who had been
acting in unison in the attempt to succour Russia. The
motives of Japan were announced b\ the Japanese Govern-
ment statement on August ?, part of which says *

“ In the presence of the threatening danger to which the
Czecho-Slovak troops are actually exposed in Siberia at the
hands of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians, the Allies
have naturally felt themselves unable to view with indif
ferencc the untoward course of events, and a certain number
of their troops have already been ordered to proceed to
Vladivostok. The Government of the United States of
America, equally sensible of the gravity of the situation,
recently approached the Japanese Government with pro-
posals for an early despatch of troops to relieve the piessure
now weighing upon the Czecho-Slovak forces. The
Japanese Government, being anxious to fall in with the
desires of the American Government, have decided to
proceed at once in disposition of suitable forces for the pro-
posed mission A certain number of these troops will be
sent forthwith to Vladivostok In adopting this course the
Japanese Government remain unshaken in their constant
desire to promote relations of enduring friendship with
Russia and the Russian people, and they reaffirm their
avowed policy of respecting the territorial integrity of
Russia and of abstaining from all interference in her internal
politics. They further declare that, upon the realization of
the objects above indicated, they will immediately withdraw

Japan's Policy in Sibtna 325

all Japanese troops from the Russian territories, and will
leave wholly unimpaired the sovereignty of Russia in all
its phases, whether political or military. ’

Later on Japan, under the terms of a military agreement
with China, sent her troops to North Manchuria, to under-
take, in conjunction with the Chinese troops, to safeguard
and maintain the order in that locality which had been
imminently threatened by the forces under Teutonic influ-
ence and command. Soon after the advance of the Japanese
detachment to I rans-Baikaha, and after the operations con-
ducted by the Allied forces in the Littoral and Amur Pro-
vinces, the Czecho-Slovuks, who had been isolated m the
interior of Siberia succeeded in re establishing communica-
tions with their kinsmen in VI idivostok and other places

1 he grave danger that at one time threatened their
« \istence having thus been ivcrkd tnd th< pi imary object
of the military activities undertaken by Japan having been
practical!) achieved, Japan effected a reduction in the
number of her troops to the minimum essential for the
preservation of the public order in those localities In the
meantime m order to savt Siberia from economic diffi-
culties, the Japanese Government appointed a Committee
tor relieving destitute sections of the population, supplying
them with the necessaries ot life ficc or below cost price
But she could not provide them with sufficient quantity
for their immediate requirements owing to transportation
difficulties, though, later on, these difficulties were removed
to a considerable extent by the co operation of Japan and
America along the line of the 1 rans Siberian and the
Chinese Eastern Railways

Now let us turn our attention to the broader aspects of
the subject With the inauguration ot Admiral Koltchak’s
Government in November, 1918, the importance of Siberia
was admittedly enhanced , and the solution of the whole
Russian Question depended largely upon the successful
administration of the Omsk Government. Had Admiral
Koltchak succeeded in establishing a form of democratic

326

Japans Policy in Siberia

government based upon the will of the people of Siberia,
the situation of Russia would have been quite different
But, unfortunately, the Admiral was so keen on crushing
the Bolshevism that he neglected to consolidate his own
Government, and refused to accept the invitation of the
Allies to a conference at Prinkipo. This was the primary
cause of his final defeat. Even at that time it was quite
clear to every unprejudiced observer that neither could the
Allies continue to render assistance for an indefinite period
to anti-Bolshevists, nor could Bolshevism be destroyed by
force of arms. The best way to solve the Russian
Question would have been, in the writer’s opinion, to
permit all sections to form their own Governments in the
territories which they occupied, and to give the Russian
people at large the free choice of government to which
they should owe allegiance. As a general statement, the
Prinkipo proposal in January, 1919, may be said to have
been a step towards this end. Had the Allies undertaken
more in earnest to persuade the anti- Bolshevists, led by
Admiral Koltchak, to join this conference, some under-
standing might, for aught we know, have been arrived at
between the Bolshevists and the anti- Bolshevists. Russia
might have worked out her own salvation, and conse-
quently propitious co-operative relations might have been
established between her people and the rest of the world.
As it was, the Allies advised anti-Bolshevists to occupy
Moscow. On May 26 last they sent a note to Admiral
Koltchak, asking him, among other things, to summon a
Constituent Assembly as soon as the Admiral and his
associates reached Moscow. But that was an ill-conceived
plan, and the downfall of his Government dates from those
days. From the very moment, indeed, of the despatch of
the reply to the above note, Koltchak’s troops started to
retreat from European Russia, and with the defeat of the
Koltchak Army the Omsk Government were forced to
transfer their seat to Irkutsk, and then to Chita towards
the close of last year.

327

Japan's Policy in Siberia

Alarmed by the untoward turn of events, and sensible
of the increased difficulties in the further withdrawal of the
Czecho Slovaks, which had b> no means been completed,
the Japanese Government approached the American
Government with a view to arriving at an understanding
on the question of sending reinforcements in case of
necessity Before the conclusion of the negotiations
America made a sudden decision to withdraw all her troops
and railwa) experts from Siberi i On January 2 2 1920
the I oreign Minister of J ipan in his speech before the
Diet explained the situ ltion in Russn and the desire of
Jap in in the following woids The need of sending out
reinforcements to our rulwi\ gu irds having been intensi
fied b) exigeneies if the situation in Siberia the Japuiese
Government haw tihcn steps to despiteh ibout half 1
division for that purpose ^Vt in) rite the present plight
of Russia is i mittcr of grive concern not only to Russia
herself but also to ill th isc interested in the generil peace
of the world The J ip inese Government are cxtrcmcl)
mxious to see the speedy tst ibhshmc nt of t st ible Govern
ment in Russn md the ichicvcmcnt of her complete
resuscitation '

But since th it speech was delivered the situ ition in
Siberi 1 developed with an d irming precipitmcy Vladi
vostoh and other towns in I istern 'aiberii excepting
some portion of I rans Baikih 1 retimed b\ Sem< noff have
been, one after another ciptured by Soci d Revolutionaries
as well as by Bolshevists culnun iting in the irrest and
execution of Admual kohehak on I ebruary 7 md since
January 31 the V ladiv jstok Zemstvo have assume d
authority all over the 1 moral Province In view of the

emergency of the situation japan hastened to despatch
reinforcements and declarer once more its intention to
maintain an attitude of strict neutrality towards all parties
whilst endeavouring to effect the withdriwal of the Czecho
Slovaks It was further announced by the Japanese
military authorities that, so long as the railways were not

328 Japans Policy in Siberia

endangered or her troops molested, Japanese troops would
not resort to hostile measures

Needless to say, further developments m Siberia are at
present awaited with keener anxiety than at any other
time Russia is a country of kaleidoscopic surprises , the
wind bloweth where it listeth Japan may, in her
* muddling through, have to change her line of action in
future in full consultation with her Allies But it may be
taken for granted that all that Japan will desire, after the
successful withdrawal of Czecho Slovak troops, will be to
keep the Bolshevist actmties within the pale of Russian
soil

3*9

COMMERCIAL SECTION

EXTENSION OF COTTON-GROWING IN
SINDH: NECESSITY FOR MORE BRITISH-
GROWN COTTON

By Thomas Summers, c.i.k., n.sc.

Britain depends to a large extent on America for cotton,
but America is using up more and more of the cotton she
produces. The world’s demand for cotton goods has also
gone far beyond the quantity produced. It is, therefore,
not only advisable, but absolutely necessary, in order to
supply the increasing demand, and to lower the price, that
cotton-growing in the Empire should be very largely in-
creased as soon as possible.

Extension ok Cotton -Growing in India
The greatest field in the Empire for the development of
cotton-growing is undoubtedly India, and the Province in
which the largest increase in quantity can be obtained in the
shortest time is Sindh.

Sindh as a Great Cotton Producer
The Indus Valley closely resembles the Nile Valley.
Both have been formed in past ages by the natural deposi-
tion of silt brought down by the rivers, and this soil is
admirably suited for cotton-growing. The volume dis-
charged by the Indus is practically unlimited; it is suffi-
cient at present and, as far as one can judge, will be
sufficient fifty years hence, to irrigate 20 million acres an-
nually, while the whole culturable area of Sindh is about
14 million acres.

Even under the present conditions of agriculture, which
are very backward, the average yield per acre of cotton in
Sindh is 160 lbs., compared with 85 lbs. in the Bombay
Presidency, 100 lbs. in the Punjab, and 85 lbs. for the whole

VOL. XVI. V

32 S fjfaris Policy in Siberia

endangered or her troops molested, Japanese troops would
not resort to hostile measures.

Needless to say, further developments in Siberia are at
present awaited with keener anxiety than at any other
lime. Russia is a country of kaleidoscopic surprises ; the
wind bloweth where it listeth. Japan may, in her
■•muddling through/' have to change her line of action in
future in fuil consultation with her Allies. Rut it may be
taken for granted that all that Japan will desire, after the
successful withdrawal of Czechoslovak troops, will be to
keep the Bolshevist activities within the pale of Russian
soil.

C OXIME RC 1 A L S ECTIO N

EXTE NSION OF COTTON-GROWING IN
SINDH: NECESSITY FOR MORI- RRITISH
GROWN COTTON

Hv Till iM As Sl'V.VI Cs. ■ .I.E.. I'.SC.

ISuiTAix ill pends to a large extent on America for cotton,
out A hut: a is using up more and more of tin- cotton she
produces. The world's demand for cotton goods has also
gone f . i r beyond the quant'tv produced. It is, therefore,
not only hvisable. hot absolutely necessary, in order to
supply tic "'.creasing dem md. and to lower the price, that
cotton- go wing in the Empire should be very largely in-
creased as s « >n as possible.

H\ ;f.\Mo\ •»: ( \»rn -\-t I ia «v. ix!. i\ I voiv
J he greatest held in the Empire for the development of
cotton-growing is undoubtedly India, and the Province in
which the largest increase in ijuantity can be obtained in tin*
shortest time is Sindh..

>%;■}! . , ll..i A i < '• i’l Ti \ P' 'I '■ ■ l-.K

Th«- Indus Valiev closely resembles the Nile \ alley,
both hav iven formed in post cys by the natural deposi-
tion of Ait brought dour, by the rivers, and this .-.oil is
admiral. h -railed for cott< m-grow in-g. 1 he volume dis-
charged by the Indus is practiealiy unlimited; it is sulfj-
cient at present and. as far as one can judge, will be.
sutftcicnl Mty years hence, to irri. ..Le jo million acres an-
nually, while the who!*- cultural),' area ol Sindh is about
1 + million acres.

Even under the present conditions of agriculture, which
are very backward, the average yield per acre of cotton in
Sindh is 160 lbs., compared with S5 lbs. in the bom bay
Presidency, 100 lbs. in the Punjab, and S5 lbs. for the whole

VOL. xvi.

, 2 s faparii Polity in Siberia

endangered or iier troops molested, Japanese troops would
not resort to hostile measures.

Needless to say, further developments in Siberia are at
present awaited with keener anxiety than at any other
lime. Russia is a country of kaleidoscopic surprises ; the
wind blowcth where it listeth. Japan may, in her
muddling through," have to change her line of action in
luturc in full consultation with her Allies. Hut it may be
taken for granted that all that Japan will desire, after the
successful withdrawal of Czocho-Slovak troops, will be to
keep the liolshevist activities within the pale of Russian
soil.

3*9

COMMERCIAL SECTION

EXTENSION o f cotton-growixc. in

SINDH: NECESSITY FOR MORE BRITISH-
GROWN COTTON

Bv Thomas Si vv.r.u.-. i-.t.r.. rsc.

Bkitaix dijnjnds to a large extent on America lor cotton,
hut Aincri-. i is using up more and more «»f tin cutinn she
produces. The world's demand for e.iiion ginnls Ii.ls also
.j'me fir !■■■)■• «nd the quantity produced. It is. therefore,
not only .livisable. Li 1 ! aW-Uaely necessary, ill order l«»
supply th- im-H-asing deni md. and i«» lower the price., that
cotton-,; :■ wing in th*- Empire should In- very largely in-
creased as > *-'ii as jpissihlc.

E\ I KNSIoN or I 1 1 T» i\-t i l:< -V. l\i . IN IxiH\

Tile greatest field in tln a Empire fur the development ot
lutton-griming is uudoiiliiedly India, and llie Province in
which the largest increase in quantity r.m Ik- obtained in the
shortest time is Sindh.

> M'li \ Coni.\ l*i -»i. ■ hi:

The hulas Valley closely n-.v-niMis the Nile Valley.
Both liav been formed in ;»!■.• age* by the natural d«-|»isi-
tioii of silt brought down l.y the rivers, and this ..oil is
.idiniraMy .-anted |i»r out. m-g roiling. The volume dis-
charge! by tilt: Indus is practical! y unlimited; it is suffi-
cient at present and. ;is iar as *.nt: can judge, will be
sufficient fifty years hence. i-> irri...ii»* jo million acres an-
nually. while the whole cultural >!•* m-a ol Sindh is about
14 million acres.

Even ii'ider the present conditions of agriculture, which
are very backward, the average yield [ier acre of cotton in
Sindh is 160 lbs., compared with X5 lbs. in the Bombay
Presidency, 100 lbs. in the Punjab, and S5 lbs. for the whole
voi- xvi. v

330

Extension of Cotton-Growing in Sindh

of India. In 1906 the yield per acre from a quarter of a
million acres of cotton in Sindh was 250 lbs. There is no
question of experiment in cotton -growing in Sindh, as it has
been grown for generations.

The average yield per acre of cotton in America is about
200 lbs., and in Egypt 400 lbs. It is not too much to
anticipate that with perennial canals the average yield
should be 250 lbs. per acre, and may in time rise much
higher.

In 1904 Mr. F. Fletcher — an agricultural expert, well
acquainted with Egypt — while Deputy Director of Agri-
culture in Sindh, expressed the opinion that “ the excep-
tional potentialities of Sindh as a cotton-growing country
ought no longer to be ignored." There is no doubt what-
ever about this, and if only a start is made with a good
canal, the present area of a quarter million acres under
cotton on the Rohri and Na ra River canals should increase
to a million acres in, say, thirty years. Eventually, when
other parts of Sindh are improved by drainage and pump-
ing, there is no reason why the area under cotton should
not reach 2 million acres or more, out of Sindh’s 14 million
acres of culturable land.

Tijk Sukkur Wkik Project

As the rapid development of cotton in India is bound up
with the Sukkur Weir project, a few remarks are given
below to show how soon and to what extent development
may be expected from this project, which will be the
greatest irrigation scheme in India.

In 1S51 that great pioneer, General (then Lieutenant)
Fife, r.k., proposed that the slovenly, wasteful, and un-
scientific system of irrigation in Sindh should be superseded
by high-level perennial canals, and fixed upon the Sukkur
Weir systems of canals as the best and most urgent to
begin with.

The complete project will consist of the Rohri, Right
Bank, and Nara River canals, and the Sukkur Weir. The
cost of the project is estimated at about /14,000,00a The

Extension of Cotton-Growing in Sindh 331

net revenue anticipated from the project ten years after
completion is ^830,000, which gives a return of 6 per cent.
Thirty years after completion the net revenue is expected
to increase to ^*1,700.000, and the return to 12 per cent.

The carrying out of this great project was really begun
by General Fife, by the construction of a new mouth to the
Nara River from the Indus, which was opened in 1S59, and
the Mithrao Canal, taking its supply from the Kara River,
which was opened some years later. The next step was
the construction of the Jamrao Canal, which is also supplied
by the Xara River. The Jamrao the only up-to-date
perennial canal in Sindh — cost /'S 50,000. and gives a
return of about 5 per cent. It was opened in 1900.

The area at present irrigated out of the culturable area
of 6 million acres, which will be commanded by the Sukkur
Weir and its canals, is about 2.300.000 acres (3S per cent.).
The anticipated area of irrigation thirty years after com-
pletion is 4,500,000 acres, which will be 75 per cent, of the
culturable area. This gives an increase of 2,200,000 acres,
out of which 1,400,000 acres is estimated as dut: to the
Rohri Canal — the most urgent and most important part of
the project.

Rai'E oj Increase in mi: Cotton Area
As the Rohri Canal must obviously be the tirst step in
carrying on this project, it will be <>f interest to show how
soon its construction will lead to the extension of the cotton
area. The first section of this canal — assuming that it will
take ten years to construct, and that it is begun in rg20 — will
open up three-quarters of a million acres of excellent cotton
land in 1924, 1 J million acres in 1925, and 2J miilion acres
in 1 930, so that there will not be long to wait, once a start
is made.

Increase in Quantity ok Cotton
(a) From the Rohri Canal. — There is considerable
difference of opinion as to the quantity and kind of cotton
which Sindh will eventually produce under perennial
canals.

330 Extension of Cotton-Growing in Sindh

of India. In 1906 the yield per acre from a quarter of a
million acres of cotton in Sindh was 250 lbs. There is no
question of experiment in cotton-growing in Sindh, as it has
been grown for generations.

The average yield per acre of cotton in America is about
200 lbs., and in Egypt 400 lbs. It is not too much to
anticipate that with perennial canals the average yield
should be 250 lbs. per acre, and may in time rise much
higher.

In 1904 Mr. F. Fletcher — an agricultural expert, well
acquainted with Egypt — while Deputy Director of Agri-
culture in Sindh, expressed the opinion that “ the excep-
tional potentialities of Sindh as a cotton-growing country
ought no longer to be ignored.” There is no doubt what-
ever about this, and if only a start is made with a good
canal, the present area of a quarter million acres under
cotton on the Rohri and Nara River canals should increase
to a million acres in, say, thirty years. Eventually, when
other parts of Sindh are improved by drainage and pump-
ing, there is no reason why the area under cotton should
not reach 2 million acres or more, out of Sindh’s 14 million
acres of culturable land.

The Sukkur Weir Project

As the rapid development of cotton in India is bound up
with the Sukkur Weir project, a few remarks are given
below to show how soon and to what extent development
may be expected from this project, which will be the
greatest irrigation scheme in India.

In 1851 that great pioneer, General (then Lieutenant)
Fife, r.e., proposed that the slovenly, wasteful, and un-
scientific system of irrigation in Sindh should be superseded
by high-level perennial canals, and fixed upon the Sukkur
Weir systems of canals as the best and most urgent to
begin with.

The complete project will consist of the Rohri, Right
Bank, and Nara River canals, and the Sukkur Weir. The
cost of the project is estimated at about ;£i 4,000,000. The

Extension of Cotton-Growing in Sindh 331

net revenue anticipated from the project ten years after
completion is ,£830, 000, which gives a return of 6 per cent.
Thirty years after completion the net revenue is expected
to increase to £1,700,000, and the return to 12 per cent
The carrying out of this great project was really begun
by General Fife, by the construction of a new mouth to the
Nara River from the Indus, which was opened in 1859, and
the Mithrao Canal, taking its supply from the Nara River,
which was opened some years later. The next step was
the construction of the Jamrao Canal, which is also supplied
by the Nara River. The Jamrao — the only up-to-date
perennial canal in Sindh — cost ,£850,000, and gives a
return of about 5 per cent. It was opened in 1900.

The area at present irrigated out of the culturable area
of 6 million acres, which will be commanded by the Sukkur
Weir and its canals, is about 2,300,000 acres (38 per cent.).
The anticipated area of irrigation thirty years after com-
pletion is 4,500,000 acres, which will be 75 per cent, of the
culturable area. This gives an increase of 2,200,000 acres,
out of which 1,400,000 acres is estimated as due to the
Rohri Canal — the most urgent and most important part of
the project.

Rate of Increase in tiie Cotton Area
As the Rohri Canal must obviously be the first step in
carrying on this project, it will be of interest to show how
soon its construction will lead to the extension of the cotton
area. The first section of this canal — assuming that it will
take ten years to construct, and that it is begun in 1920 — will
open up three-quarters of a million acres of excellent cotton
land in 1924, million acres in 1925, and 2^ million acres
in 1930, so that there will not be long to wait, once a start
is made.

Increase in Quantity ok Cotton
(a) From the Rohri Canal \ — There is considerable
difference of opinion as to the quantity and kind of cotton
which Sindh will eventually produce under perennial
canals.

332 Extension of Cot ton- Growing m Sindh

For example, in the Rohri Canal tract alone, out of its
culturable area of 2,400,000 acres, Mr Fletcher’s forecast
of cotton in 1904 was 800,000 acres, or 33 per cent

In 1910 Mr. W. H Lucas, Commissioner in Sindh, esti-
mated 470,000 acres, or 20 per cent On newly opened
perennial canals in Egypt, 50 per cent is sometimes culti-
vated under cotton for a few years, but 33 per cent, is
generally recognized as the percentage which can be
kept up

On the Rohri Canal, which will command the best cotton
land in Sindh, the intensity for cotton should not be less
than 25 per cent , which is the percentage allowed by the
Cotton Committee for the Jamrao Canal in paragraph 96
of their Report. This would give 600,000 acres of cotton
per annum Taking into consideration the great ad-
vantages the Rohri Canal will have over the Jamrao, it is
probable that the area under cotton will reach Mr Fletcher’s
figure of 33 per cent However, taking 25 per cent.,
the area under cotton on the Rohri Canal would be

200.000 acres in 1924, increasing to 600,000 acre^ in 1930.

As Sindh under the present unsatisfactory conditions,

produces an average of 160 lbs per acre, and produced
250 lbs in 1906 it will not be out of place to assume that,
under improved methods of agriculture, an up-to-date
perennial canal will produce 250 lbs per acre from the best
soil in Sindh

This would give so million lbs, or 1 20,000 bales in
1924, rising to 370000 bales in 1930

With 33 per cent intensity the total quantity of cotton
from the Rohri Canal alone would be half a million bales

As the present area of cotton in the Rohri Canal tract is

120.000 acres and the average yield 160 lbs , the quantity
at present produced is about 50,000 bales, so that the net
increase on the Rohri Canal would be, say, 300,000 bales,
with only 25 per cent, of the culturable area under cotton,
and 450,000 bales, with 33 per cent.

if) From the complete Sukkur Weir Project . — The
Cotton Committee’s cotton forecast for the Jamrao Canal

Extension oj Cotton-Growing in Sindh 333

is 25 per cent of the culturable area Taking this
percentage, the total area under cotton in the Rohri
and Nara River tracts, in which the culturable area is
about 3 900000 acres, would be 970000 acres This area
at 250 lbs per acre gives 600 000 bales

No cotton forecasts have been made for the Right Bank
Canal tract It has a high subsoil water level, and is not
considered suitable for cotton, in its present state at any
rate However, if the subsoil water level is lowered by
pumping, this tract of million acres could be improved
and might, in time, produce another 200,000 bales

There is no reason why, with up to date perennial canals,
demonstration farms, efficient dr unage, and improved
methods of agriculture the Sukhur Weir project should
not produce from a minimum of half a million to, say,
1 million bales of cotton In lddition to this cotton the
area under wheat and other food crops would be increased
by over 1 million acres

Lorn Stai li Cotton

Shortly after the opening of the Jamrao Canal in 1900,
Mr M D Mackenzie, the pioneer of Egyptun cotton
growing in Sindh succeeded in producing some excellent
Egyptian cotton on this canal, under his personal
supervision

In 1904 Mr Fletcher made a forecast of 800,000 acres
of Egyptian cotton on the Rohri Canal alone, but in 1910
Mr Lucas, in his forecast for the Sukkur Weir project,
made no allowance for long staple cotton, as it had not
been proved to be a success In 1919 the Cotton Com-
mittee have estimated that about 60 per cent, of the whole
area under cotton will be long staple, and have allowed
400,000 acres for this project Mr Lucas, who had long
experience of the Sindhi zamindar, based his forecasts on
indigenous cotton, which has been grown for generations,
and on which the Sukkur Weir project will pay. The
difficulties in connection with the cultivation of Egyptian

334 Extension of Cotton-Growing in Sindh

or other long staple cotton will probably be overcome in
time, but not at once The Sindhi cultivator will have to
be shown that the cultivation of long staple cotton on a
commercial scale will pay him before he will take to it

U RGFPs C\ OF THE StkKUR WEIR PrOJTCT
There are three projects under consideration in the
Punjab — the Sutlej River, the Haveli and the Sindh Sagar
Doab 1 he Cotton Committee anticipate an area of
525,000 acres of cotton under these three projects of which
200 000 should be American After discussing these
projects, they say, in paragraph 38 Not only is the con-
struction of the Sukkur B irrage and the connected canals
far more essential to the extension of long staple cotton in
India than any or in fact all the projects mentioned above
but it is equally essential to the maintenance of the
prosperity of Sindh at its present level, unless further
progress in regard to irrigation in the Punjab is to be
stopped in view of its effect upon the supplies m Sindh
I he Committee forecast for long staple cotton under the
Sukkur Weir Project Canals is 400000 acres, comp ired
with 200000 icres under these thre e Punjab canals

Delay m can yin ^ out the Sukkui Weir Project — The
unfortunate delay of ten years in commencing the Sukkur
Weir project has been due to the difference of opinion as
to whether owing to the abstraction of water from the
Indus and its tributaries by new Punjab canals, especially
by the great Punjab 1 riple Project Canals the Rohri Canal
should be begun before the Sukkur Weir or the Weir
before the canal As the Indus data do not show that
these canals, which were opened between 1912 and 1915
have had any effect on the Indus in Sindh, it is anticipated
that the Rohri Canal will be commenced this year, and that
Sindh s long looked for increase in cotton and food crops
may begin in 1924

335

THE BRITISH-ARMENIAN CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE

VISIT OF H E BOGHOS NUBAR PACHA

At the meeting of the Council of the Chamber held on Wednesday
March 3, Mr E A Brayley Hodgetts presiding, supported by Professor
Thoumaian, Deputy Chairman, Sir T. Roper Parkington, Mr. E R Bartley
Dennis, m p , Mr. James A Malcolm, Mr S P Stephens (Hon T reasurer),
and others, H E. Boghos Nubar Pacha (of the Armenian National
Delegation), and His Beatitude the Patriarch of Constantinople, were
welcomed by the Chairman

Mr E A Brayltv Hodgetts, in introducing H E Boghos Nubar
Pacha, said that that name was historical and revered by every student of
the history of the British Empire It was unnecessary for him to refer to
the services which His Excellency’s father had rendered to this country and
to Egypt, but it was pleasant to reflect that that father’s son was so nobly
following in his parent’s footsteps His Excellency was devoting himself
with rare ability and assiduity to the service of hts own country, m doing
so he was promoting the best interests of the British Lmpire , which was
identified with the advancement of civili/ation and culture and more
particularly in bringing about a union of East and West He need not
refer to the arduous labours of His Lxcellency on behalf of his ancient and
noble country at the Peace Conference in Paris and now in London He
felt that he had achieved a great work m the face of many difficulties, and
he was grateful that his Excellency had been able to find time to attend
this meeting and grace it with his presence The British Armenian
Chamber of Commerce had no political objects, it was a purely commercial
body, but he thought it would perform a very useful function in assisting
the energetic and industrious Armenian people to develop the undoubted
wealth of their country and in promoting trade relations with Great Britain

HE Boghos Nuiar Pachv said he was particularly touched by the
Chairman’s reference to his father. It was a surprise — indeed, a very
agreeable surprise — for him to learn that, with the co operation of their
friends in England, a British Armenian Chamber of Commerce was already
founded As soon as the Armenian State was set up by the Peace Con*
ference — an event which they all hoped might not be deferred — one of
their first cares and duties would be to establish commercial relations with
the F uropean countries, and they could not but view with lively gratitude
that Great Britain was taking the lead in that direction Armenia, which
until now had not been able to undergo any economic development under
the barbarous Turk, who had paralyzed and rendered it sterile, would not
fail, under the energetic impulse, penetrating activity, and invincible industry
of Armenians, to progress by leaps and bounds Their first efforts would be
directed towards the restoration of their agriculture, in order to assure

336 The British- Armenian Chamber of Commerce

immediately the subsistence of the people on the produce of the country
itself. As soon as that was done, they would be able to export their
produce. But to attain the double object, they would need, above all,
agricultural machinery and implements, which they could only get from
abroad And it was in that vast field open to activity that an institution,
such as the Bntish-Armenian Chamber of Commerce, would be of the
greatest value Next to agriculture, and perhaps concurrently, they would
have to develop their subsoil, which possessed immense unexploited riches.
Experts who had explored the country attested to the existence of great
mineral deposits Copper, silver, lead, iron, coal, oil, and other minerals
were to be found m Armenia. But the co-operation of their friends was
necessary for them to accomplish such a task. He was confident that
Great Britain, who had so powerfully contributed, by the triumph of its
arms to the liberation of Armenia, would not be lacking tn enterprise and
sympathy to help Armenia m peace to their mutual advantage.

The Chairman then welcomed His Beatitude the Patriarch of Con-
stantinople, who arrived later, and after referring to the heroism with which
His Beatitude had accompanied the Armenian refugees in their calvary to
Mesopotamia, staled that he was the first Armenian Patriarch to visit
these shores, and expressed his gratitude to him for coming to this
meeting to give them his benediction. He thought it was a good omen
for the future success and prosperity of the British Armenian Chamber of
Commeree

His BcviniTDi 7 111 Pairivrch ob C onsianiinopli addressed the
meeting in Aimcman, Professor r J houmaian interpreting as follows
Although commerce did not come wuhin his ecclesiastical sphere, yet, as
the representative of a prominently commercial people, when he was
invited to be present, he at once consented He took that opportunity of
expiessmg his hearty appreciation of their efiorts and interests in the
commercial aspects of Armenia, which with agriculture and industry form
the trades which were largely practised by the Armenians But in order
that the Armenian activities in all these branches might attain their full
development, Armenian independence must be an accomplished fact. Only
independence, however, was not sufficient. His people had been so
ternbly and cruelly treated that without outside help it would be difficult,
and would take a long time to dtvelop their full activities. Bor that reason
they wanted British help above all 1 hey firmly believed that British
industry with Armenian grit would work marvels in a short time. The
soil was fertile, but the subsoil was still richer in mineral wealth He
himself had resided for many years in Armenia, and knew personally that
in many places the ores were almost exposed at the surface He heartily
welcomed that beginning which was certainly in the right direction, and he
hoped that the Chamber would be an intermediary between the two
nations of Great Britain and Armenia When British enterprise and
Armenian perseverance and endurance were coupled together, the
prosperity of New Armenia would be assured. He asked God's blessing
on their enterprise.

337

ARCHEOLOGICAL SLCTION

^ G\P 10 I 0 GICAI NOTES
By Warren R Dawson

i The. Histori al Value of Grech Papyri — Mr H Idus Bell th«. papy
rologist of the British Museum, gave a most interesting lecture before the
Egypt hxploratkn Society on 1 ^bruiry 20 1920,10 which he dealt with
the historical import met of the paj yn in the Greek language, of which so
\ast a collection has come down to us It may be thought that the subject is
outside the pale of a society devoted to Egyptology but it must be remem-
bered that at a late period m her history hgypl was under Greek rule and
that this period is no less important in the history of the country than th it
of the Pharaohs Moreover, Tgypt is the provenance from which the
great majority of papyri has come, and the Egypt Exploration Society has
discovered and published more of tbu>c documents than any other single
body has done

Y\ e are apt to consider history as a s ries of epoch making events —of
conquests of governments, of laws an 1 econonu s The Greek papyti
which have come down to us act m a hundred ways to correct the false
focus in which we view these events, for they comprise T yrical and epic
poems, discourses, letters, contracts legal forms, and a thousand and one
miscellaneous jottings made by content) oranes of contemporary events,
seen from the personal point of view of their authors, and not through the
long telescope of posterity The papyri have given us practically nothing
in the shape of official annals or, indeed of any of the usual documents of
the type to which modern historians resort for their facts but m place of
this we have a mass of evidence of the manneis, customs, and opinions
of antiquity, which infuse the proper colouring into the greater events
which we commonly term history

is the principal actors m history appear to us as exceptional personali-
ties, men who have made their mark but who are quite abstract and form
less in our minds without the foil of the common crowd, by whom they
were surrounded and above whom they rose J he Greek papyri furnish us
with an abundance of matter of a personal nature I hey show us the great
undistinguished mass who performed in their day the common tasks of
humanity Without this leaven the greater personages cannot be properly
appreciated by us

By analogy with the data furnished jn Graeco Roman Egypt we can, to
a considerable extent, gauge the psychology of the Graeco Roman world

33 ^ Egyptological Notes

which has had such a vast and far reaching influence on the posterity of
nations

The study of the Greek papyri has given us much data on legal pro
cedure and jurisprudence, on popular piety — and impiety — of the economic
decay of the Roman Empire, of the early joys and sorrows of Christianity
1 he last-named subject is one of great interest to theological students
I ragments of lost gospels have come to light, and documents which show
us the extent to which the early Christians borrowed from and adapted the
paganism of their ancestors and of their contemporaries.

Such in rapid review are the principal subjects with which the lecturer
dealt He showed us plainly how important to history these confessedly
unhistorical documents really are, and he noted with regret how backward
this country has been in comparison with others in cultivating the publica
tion and study of these very human documents, for the “ proper stud) of
mankind is man ”

2 The First Reformer — It is a matter of common knowledge that
midwa) through her enormously long history I gypt was dominated by an
Asiatic immigration known as the Hyhsos, whose power was so great that
their chiefs actually occupied the throne of the Pharaohs Their
principal sphere was the Delta country, whilst in Upper Egypt the native
princes still ruled at Thebes After a series of struggles the invaders
were expelled, and the eighteenth dynasty opened a new era of stupendous
progress both cu il and political A long line of illustrious Kings succeeded
one another, and a great military spmt arose as the result of which the
empire expanded in all directions, and as a contemporary pnrase ran,
“ Egypt eould set her boundaries where she would,” and became mistress
of the ancient world

With the death of Amenophis III., with the extensive empire to control,
there was never greater need of a powerful ruler and a firm statesman to
rule Egypt’s destinies, but the succeeding Pharaoh was quite unfitted for
the task which lay before him although he achieved greatness in another
direction such as none of his forerunners or successors ever did Instead
of a firm handed man of affairs, a diplomat or military leader, the new
King, Amenophis IV , was a youthful and aesthetic dreamer for whom the
aggressive affairs of state had no appeal He conceived a pure and mono
thustic religion, and devoted his whole reign to its nurture In order to
understand what a stupendous achievement such a reformation really was,
it is necessary to remember that Egypt was the most conservative country in
the world Its religious system which dominated and formed an integral
part of the whole civil, social, and political fabric of the land was in the
mam preserved intact from the beginning to the end of history, excepting
only the short interruption with which we are about to deal Order of
precedence, ceremonial, and etiquette were absolutely paramount, and every
being, animate and inanimate, every form and power, had its appointed
place in the hierarchical scheme of things. Thebes was the capital of the
country, and its god Amon had risen with its fortunes and had become the
greatest national god, appropriating the attributes of Re, the sun god, who
was the principal god under the ancient empire. The great conquests had

339

Egyptological Notes

brought enormous spoils and nches to Thebes, and of these the lion’s share
was given to Amon Re, the god of the city The priesthood of Amon
waxed wealthy and powerful, and its temporal power became immense The
priests of Amon nearly all held important civil offices and high places in
court, and the religious and political life of the country was thus fused into
one entity under the power of the strongest corporation the country could
produce

Amenophis IV , the new King, instituted the worship of Aton, the sun’s
disk, as the outward visible sign of a one and almighty god, a god of
beneficence and joy for whom none of the accepted priestcraft was
required It has been supposed in some quarters that the Aton cult was
merely a revival of the old sun worship of Heliopolis under a different form
It would seem, however, that to the idealistic temperament of the young
King this sun worship was as little a real religion and as much a priestcraft
as that of Amon, and would be equally distasteful Indeed, subsequent
events make it clear that the new religion was to be absolutely distinct from
the old, and could not flourish on the same soil

In its early stages the Aton cult was practised at 1 hebes, but the ubi
quitous Amon and his priests made the localitv intolerable and Amenophis
IV , who had changed his name to Akhnaton, founded a new city where
Aton should be worshipped unhampered by external forces In the change
of his name, not only was the King identifying himself with Aton, but was
severing the connection with Amon, whose name was confounded in his own
The elimination of the name of Amon marks the only outward fanaticism
which we can lay to the charge of the Akhnaton, for the King caused the
name of Amon to be obliterated from every monument and inscription
which contained it

Once established in the new city which he called Akhetaion (the modern
Arabic name is Tell el Amarna) the King gave free scope to his fancies
A beautiful palace was built, the ruins of which were excavated some years
ago and Tevealed a wonderful painted pavement* m a free and naturalistic
style — a style which makes an absolute break with the conservative conven
tions of I gyptian art

The wall paintmgs in the tombs at Amarna show a similar cleavage
with old tradition and introduce perspective for the first time in Egyptian
art Akhuaton was the most affectionate husband and father, and is seen
on his monuments caressing his wife and children, a strange contrast to the
usual formal and ceremonial manner of depicting the Pharaohs

The celebrated hymns to Aton are attributed to the authorship of
Akhnaton, but they were at least composed under his influence The most
beautiful hymn, which is inscribed on the walls of one of the Amarna
tombs, bears a striking resemblance to the 104th Psalm The resemblance
will be at once apparent on comparing the two compositions t
The court embraced the new religion during its author’s lifetime, but on

* Petrie, Tell el Amarna, Plates II IV

f In Breasted’s “ History of Egypt,” second edition, pp 371 ff , the two
are placed in parallel columns

340

Egyptological Notes

his death it quickly died out and the priests of Amon triumphed once
more The new town lasted for some time as an industrial centre, but was
finally demolished and forgotten

It is difficult to appreciate the greatness of the reform which Akhnaton
engendered without a more exhaustive study of this evidence, which space
forbids, and one of the evidences of the greatness of his personality is the
fact that his religion died with him He had no male heir, and his suc-
cessors had not sufficient personality or interest to maintain the new faith
against the powerful opposition of the priesthood of Amon

'I he “ City of the Heretic King ’ formed the subject of a lecture delivered
for the Fgypt 1 xploration Society by Professor T E Peet on January 23
He dealt fully with the rise and growth of the new religion, and in great
detail with the city which was its home I trust I have faithfully represented
the lecturer s views, but if 1 differ from him, he is, of course, in no way
responsible for the liberties I have taken

JULY ISSUL “ASIATIC REVIEW’

Among the tontributors to the July issue of the Asiatic Review will
be the Hon W (, A Ormsby Gore, up (on “Arabia”), Baron A
Heyking, dci (on " Revolutionary Socialism in Russia its Origin and
Drift ) There will also be articles on “ The Tea Industry in India,”
“ I he Iinancnl I conormc Position in Tapan,”and the “Shan States of
Burma ”

34 1

EX-RUSSIA

By Olga Noyikoff

Darkness in Russia continues. The Deluge of Noah is
being repeated by a deluge of blood. The Deluge of Noah
lasted one hundred and fifty days — the present deluge of
blood has now lasted three years, and its horrors seem to
greatly exceed the misfortunes of the days of Genesis.
That Chaos, called by courtesy Government, decreed im-
mediately that all prison-houses of convicted criminals,
thieves, forgers, and murderers, should be opened, and set
in their place innocent citizens whose only crime was their
religious patriotism. It was a bad beginning— -facilis
descensus Averno. What the Romans foresaw — of that the
Bolsheviks have given a novel and startling illustration
quite lately.

In the Daily Telegraph we read the following ;

“ The employees at the Putilov Works have issued a
manifesto, declaring for the benefit of the Russian workers
generally that the Soviet Government has deceived the
Russian proletariat, even robbing it of the political rights
it enjoyed under the Imperial regime, and that this has
been done by the application of incredible terrorism.”

This news receives striking confirmation in the March
issue of National Opinion , the organ of Brigadier-General
Page-Croft, a generous friend of my country :

“ In the Communist {a Soviet paper published in Moscow)
of November i, 1919, there is an article called ‘The Liquida-
tion of Counter-Revolution at the Putilov Works.’ In it
we find a list of one hundred and eighty- nine workmen shot
by order of the ‘ Extraordinary Commission of the Soviet
0} the Union of Northern Communes.'

“ According to the Soviet paper, these executions ot
workmen at the Putilov Works, in Petrograd, were caused by
the following circumstances : When General YudeniclPs

342

Ex-Russia

cavalry made a raid on Petrograd the Putilov workmen held
a crowded meeting, presided over by Cherniak, a workman
and former Communist, and at this meeting speeches were
made against the Soviet authorities.

“ There were cries of ' Down with the Extraordinary
Commissions!’ ‘Down with the Bolsheviks!’ ‘Death
to the Commissars !’ ‘ Bread and Liberty,’ etc,

“ The Bolshevik Extraordinary Commission sent its
‘best forces’ to supress this counter-revolution. The
notorious Peter the Painter himself came from Moscow to
assist his Petrograd comrades. The article goes on to say
that, thanks to all the latest methods of extracting informa-
tion elaborated by the ‘ Chresvychaikas ’ (Extraordinary
Commission for Fighting Counter-Revolution) having been
employed at the examination of the workmen, the Soviet
authorities managed to discover the culprits, and, as a
result, one hundred and eighty-nine Russian workmen were
shot down by bodies of Letts and Chinese.”

Monstrous and incredible as it may appear, slavery has
been introduced into Russia. It is even admitted by the
Moscow Government in their official wireless published on
March 10 in the Evening News, and commented upon in the
leading article of that issue. They threaten with immediate
punishment any who leave their work on the railways.
The case of all the 48,000,000 of serfs liberated in 1862
is even worse. That measure was the delight and happiness
and blessing of the whole of Russia in the days of
Alexander II. Can we be surprised to learn that all the
peasants begin to realize the nature of their persecutors ?
Liberty and property are abolished for high and low alike.
That restriction imposes even quite unexpected limitations.
A lady newly arrived from Russia describes how she tried
to buy some bread in selling her personal belongings, but
was not only threatened with their confiscation, but with
imprisonment. Not only liberty but also all property of
every Russian aristocrat, peasant and workman alike, has
been abolished.

The present rulers of Russia call themselves Russians
simply because they are Russian subjects — but they are as
unlike true Russians as a Touareg is a French Marquis.

Ex-Russia

343

So the Bolsheviks are reintroducing serfdom in Russia
The full meaning of these words is best described by a
friend of mine, the late Sir D Mackenzie Wallace, in his
chapter on the “ Emancipation of the Serf ,n Russia
He writes

“ The periodical Press — which was once the product
and the fomenter of liberal aspirations — hailed the raising
of the question with boundless enthusiasm The emancipa
non it was said, would certainly open a new and glorious
epoch in the national history Serfage was described as an
ulcer that had long been poisoning the national blood , an
enormous weight under which the whole nation groaned
is an insurmountable obstacle, preventing all material and
moral progress as a cumbrous load which rendered all
free vigorous action impossible, and prevented Russia from
rising to the level of the Western nations If Russn hid
succeeded in stemming the llood of idverse purpose in spite
of the millstone round her neck, what might she not
iccomphsh when free and untrimmelled ? (p 276 )

This millstone has again been fixed round the neck of
poor Russia by the Bolsheviks Such is the present cult
of liberty equality, and fraternity

In 1862 different ideas prevailed amongst the true
representatives of the Russian Government, d.nd especially
the Emperor The whole of the civilizid world admired
this meisure of the Emperor and how that event was
supported by every Russian Mackenzie Wallace intro
duces the whole subject in the following pangraph

‘ It is a fundamental principle of Russian political organ-
ization that all initiative in public affairs proceeds from
the autocratic power The widespread desire, therefore
for the emancipation of the serfs did not find free expression
so long as the Emperor kept silence regarding his intentions
The educated classes watched anxiously for some sign, and
soon a sign was given to them ”

Is there any parallel between Alexander II and the
present regime in Russia ? No — for the Tsar of old was
the liberator, and Lenin has become the enslaver More
than ever one would like to exclaim with the present
Patriarch Tihon “Anathema!’

344

A PL1 A FOR SANITY

I he brochure entitled 1 The Agony of Amritsar begins by deprecating
the attempt to anticipate the report of lord Hunters committee and tc
whitewash General Dyer in advance as the saviour of India There is a
proverb about glass houses, but we will let that pass and endeavour to
tike the advice to heart

Now before entering into any of the facts allegations or suggestions it
r necessary to notice two general considerations In the first place there
is no situation which an Indian c \ilnn dislikes so much as a riot I here is
no time for cold calculation you have to act for the Ixst on the spur of the
moment with the knowledge to put aside the enormous responsibility of
firing at all that if you fire too soon or too late, or if your action seems
t > those authorities who were not j resent to have been too soon or too
late you may be taken c everely to task you may in fact rum your career
Secondly the civilian dislikes martial law not only because it is i
desperate remedy but because it is i confession of failure lor these
two reasons things must appear very black indeed bcfoie the civilian will
appeal to the military

Now it is admitted that there was in India a state of s cthing unrest
at the end of the war In addition to other ills India had been scourged
by the influenza high prices were telling cruelly on the misses and there
were three ciuses of political anxiety the file of I urkey the Rowlati \ct
and the ( lbinet s pledge c f 1 9 1 , On the economic causes there need be
no dispute but opinions m ly well differ about the political causes In
April of last yeir the question of I urkey had not arisen in any acute form
the great mass of the Hindus do not care a rap what happens to the
Sultan I he Rowlatt Act is the outcome of the Rowlatt Commission
which made an exhaustive in pnry into the various consj iraaes murders
dacoitics and disorders that hid occurred during recent years The
British Cabinet has made no announ< ement about the pledge of August
1917, but the Montagu Chelmsford Report had been published Now
the Rowlatt Act and the Report do not ically touch the masses at all It
\s absurd to suppose that the * man in the street m India takes auy
spontaneous interest m either, that he has read cither, or that he could
follow them intelligently if he had read them It follows tnereforc that
the situation did not arise directly out of any of these things but out of the
use which was made of them by the leaders interpretations and comments,
acting upon a people already excited by the economic causes

But the pamphlet goes on to say that in spite of ample grounds for
exasperation, the people, except for a few acts of “ regrettable violence
such as the murder of two bank managers, the burning of two banks

A Plea for Sanity

345

and other buildings, the assault on a European lady, and the death of
“ some Europeans,” were peacefully inclined, marched “ peacefully ’ to the
Deputy Commissioner’s house, and were “ peaceful until unnecessarily
provoked.” The u deplorable acts of violence ” were due, in Amritsar at
any rate, to the worst elements m the crowd In fact, in Kasur it was, or
may have been, the very arrival of the police which provoked the outbreak
of crowd violence Finally, in Delhi the mob was fired upon because a
few stones were thrown

Now, bearing in mind our two general considerations, we are driven to
the conclusion either that the civil and military authorities indulged in an
orgy of murder for its own sake or that they entirely lost their heads
ihe first of these alternatives is difficult to believe It involves the
conspiracy of the Punjab Government and of the Government of India
with a few of their own subordinates, to say nothing of the total contradic
tion of all we know of the T nglish character 1 he second is almost as
difficult, for it means that the authorities at Delhi at Gujiranwila at
Kasur, and at “one or two places in the Punjab, all gave way to panic
simultaneously and that the Punjab Government shared the panic

So, then, if these things cannot b- reasonably explained m this way, there
was evidently something to alarm the authorities, and that something must
have been more serious than the writers of thib brochure are willing to
allow In Amritsar the “wholly petceful demonstration had met “to
reprobate the mob violence that had occurred and concert measures for
preserving order Then why did they choose this very suspicious
ii ethod ? General Dyer who is condemned out of his own mouth is
surely entitled to use his own evidence m his favour You cannot have n
both way s He says that he was ordered to Amritsar and that Mr Irving
could not deal with the situation He speaks of the proclamation of the
13th He went through the city personally for making the proclamation
Now it is not necessary to assume that the \ reclamation and warnings
were Tead or understood by everyone in the crowd There had been
1 regrettable violence the civil auth jritics confessed themselves
powerless, and General Dyer had gone round the city with his orders Ihe
civil authorities must have taken some action before they called in the
military some at least of the crowd must have heird and seen General
Dyer, and news flies notoriously in India Surely the obvious way to
1 concert measures for preserving order was to consult those whose
business it was to preserve order, and the obvious way to court disaster was
to assemble m a large crowd a collection of men which is quite unfit to
“concert measures of any kind And if the city was peaceful what need
was there for these measures?

Whether or no General Dyer was right in firing as he did, whether he
has committed a “ regrettable * massacre or is the salvation of India, it is
neither nght nor pertinent to discuss That is a matter for the committee,
and, as we have already seen, it is most difficult to arrive at a nght decision,
even with all the evidence before one What is pertinent is to show, as
has been attempted, that the narrative of the brochure is contrary to all
human probability and to all human experience It is claimed that Sir

\OL XVI /

346 A Plea for Sanity

Michael ODwyer, General Dyer, Colonel Johnson, Colonel O'Bnen
“ and others ” must be brought to trial, since “ the guilty must be brought
to trial. 5 ’ But if we have already decided that they are guilty, what is the
use of trying them? Why not murder them off-hand, as they murdered
the innocent and peaceful Punjabis? Or, again, if they are to be tned,
why call them guilty before tnal ?

One need not dwell on the “ forty or fifty boys and the baby of seven
months " (printed in large type) who, it seems, unfortunately lost their lives.
Surely it is not suggested that General Dyer specially selected these boys
and the baby for his inhuman brutality Nor need we do more than
mention the electric fans which are “ a necessity in the Indian climate,”
though there is not one Indian house in a thousand which has them, and until
quite recently not a European house either These things are side issues,
but they do not indicate that judicial impartiality with which such a subject
should be approached

Stanley Rice,

Secretary, East India Association.

DRAMA IIC NOTES

“In thf Nu.Hr” — Si Martin's Theatre

I his play, adapted from the trench of Simoni Piernardi is assured of a
long run It is the old story of the eternal triangle , but in this case the
aggrieved parly is a police magistrate with pumitive standards of revenge
to be carried into effect with very modern ideas of refined cruelty The
erring wife trembles throu 0 h three acts, and the third party tries to look
brave through the same ordeal The knot is cut with the aid of an
eccentric burglar who had seen too much, and theiefore threatens the
husband with ridicule This burglar, a character that might have been
drawn by Bal/ac, is really the making of the play, and is very ably acted
by Mr Leslie 1 aber Mfied Drajton as the police magistrate frightens
his enemies and the audience

34 7

LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

OUR REVIEW OF BOOKS
INDIA

INDIAN FINANCE AND BANKING
By G F indi ay Shirras

London Macmillan Pp 482 1919 18s net

{Reviewed by Sir James Wilm. n, k c s 1 )

This volume has appeared opportunely, and will be a
valuable help to the study of the Indian currency system,
and of the changes made by the Orders recently passed by
the Secretary of State on the Report of the Committee on
Indian Exchange and Currency The policy now adopted
will have a far-reaching effect, not only on all who receive
money from India, or have to remit it to that country, but
also on the course of India’s trade, on prices in India, and
on the welfare of all classes of the population and especially
of the poor It will also have a considerable influence for
some time to come on prices in this country and in the
world generally As Mr Shirras is Director of Statistics
with the Government of India, and was for some years on
special duty in the Finance Department of that Govern-
ment, he speaks with authority on this subject, although, as
he says in his Preface, he alone is responsible for the con-
tents of the book

He gives an excellent summary of the history of Indian
currency during the last hundred years, including an account
of the various crises through which it has come, of the dis-
cussions which ensued, and of the orders passed by the
Secretary of State from time to time In reading this
account one is struck by the extremely complicated character

348

Reviews and Notices

of the question, by the diversity of the views expressed by
the experts whose opinions are quoted, by the great diffi-
culties with which the working of the system has been
confronted from time to time, and by the success with
which on the whole those difficulties were surmounted by
the responsible authorities His description of the Indian
banking system is of especial interest at present, when it
seems to be practically settled that the three Presidency
banks will be amalgamated into one Imperial Bank of
India and that there will be a more rapid development
throughout the country of banking on Western lines

Not the least valuable part of the book are the tables,
which give the most trustworthy statistics a\ ailable connected
with the working of the currency They throw light upon
India s marvellous capacity of lbsorbing the precious metals
According to these statistics the world s production of gold
since the discovery of America has been to the value of
over 3,500 million sovereigns of which no less than 1,500
millions’ worth has been produced since the beginning of
this century As there must have been a considerable
quantity of gold in the world in 1493, and as gold is prac
tically indestructible it ma) be estimated that the woild s
existing stock of gold would make at Jeist 3 500 million
sovereigns and is about double what it was only twenty-
five years ago (What wonder that the gold prices of
commodities have risen in the last twenty five vears and
were rising rapidly before the wart) Mr Shirras shows
that, including net imports and home production, India
absorbed during the last twenty-five years no less than 215
million sovereigns worth of gold, including a net import of
94 million sovereign coins since 1901 He estimates the
present stock of gold in India at the equivalent of 372
million sovereigns which must be about one-tenth of the
whole world s stock During the five years before the war
India absorbed 105 million sovereigns’ worth, or more than
one fifth of the world’s production during those five years
Like most writers on the subject, he deplores this unprofit-

Reviews and Notices

349

able habit of hoarding, and would like to see the Indian
peasant give up his gold in exchange for notes or more
useful commodities But it must be remembered that there
are 315 million people in India, so that the total stock of
gold held in India is not much more than a sovereign per
head of the population , while even now the banks m the
United Kingdom hold gold to the amount of £3 per head of
population, and the quantity held here in the shape of orna
ments must also be considerable , and the United States at
this moment hold in banks and in ornaments probably 1,000
million sovereigns’ worth of gold, or about ^10 per head of
population It is hardly for Western nations to blame the
I ndian peasant if he prefers to keep a part of his savings in the
form of hoarded gold At all events, it should be recognized
that, if India had not absorbed so large a proportion of the
world’s new production of gold, gold prices of commodities
throughout the world would inevitably have risen at a greater
rate than they did before the war

Since the war began, India has been starved of gold owing
to the restrictions placed upon its movement from one country
to another, and during the five years ending March 31, 1919,
has been able to add to its stock only 34 million pounds worth
of gold, as compared with the actual addition of 105 millions
during the five years before the war One result of these
restrictions has been that the rupee price of gold in India
rose rapidly from the pre-war rate of 15 rupees to the
sovereign, until last September it was over 20 rupees to
the sovereign The Indian Government then began to sell
considerable quantities of gold to the highest bidder, and at
its first sale obtained an average price equivalent to 16*80
rupees to the sovereign The price obtained at these sales
went down to 15 46 rupees on September 17, but has since
risen again, and at the sale of gold on January 19 the price
obtained was equivalent to 16 78 rupees to the sovereign
On February 3, after the announcement of the Secretary of
State’s orders, the Bombay quotation was equivalent to
16 32 rupees to the sovereign The Government of India

350

Reviews and Notices

have now, in accordance with a recommendation of the
Currency Commission, announced that during the next six
months they will sell not less than 15 million tolas of gold
(equivalent to 24 million sovereigns), without any minimum
limit, the Government reserving the right to refuse any
tender It will be interesting to see what effect on the
rupee price of the sovereign the sale of this large quantity
of gold will have It can hardly bring the price below 15
rupees to the sovereign because under the Secretary
of State’s orders, for the present the sovereign remains
legal tender at the rate of 15 rupees It is possible that it
may not even bring down the permanent price of the sov-
ereign to 15 rupees, because India has been so starved of
gold during the last five )ears that even so large a quantity
as 24 million sovereigns worth may not suffice to meet the
demand Meanwhile, the Government of India can at
present buy gold in London at about r 20s per ounce and
as the rate of exchange in depreciated British paper currency
is at present 2s per rupee it can land the gold in India
at a cost of about 1 2 rupees to the sovereign , so that it
should make a very satisfactory profit for the Indian tax
payer out of its gold monopoly

Mr Shirras estimates the total stock of silver in India at
3 729 million ounces (enough to make nearly 11,000 million
rupees) This must equal about one fourth of the present
world s stock of silver and at the rate of 2s to the rupee
(measured in gold) would be equivalent in value to 1,100
million sovereigns During the fi\e years before the war,
the net import of silver into India was 310 million ounces,
but during the five )ears ending with March, 1919, it was
492 million ounces During the last jear of the latter
period, the net import was no less than 237 million ounces,
while the world s new production during that year was
probably not more than 180 million ounces This greatly
enhanced demand of India for silver was no doubt largely
due to the restriction on the import of gold, and (combined
with a concurrent enhanced demand from China and other

Rroiews and Notices 351

countries) was the principal cause of the enormous rise
during the last two years in the world’s price of silver, and
consequently in the exchange value of the rupee. The
people of India were able to compel the Government to
import silver in immense quantity, and to coin it into rupees
in order to maintain the convertibility of its excessive paper
issue, and during the year ending March 31, 1919, the
Mints in India were in this way compelled to coin no less
than 515 million rupees (including small silver). The
greater part of these new rupee coins must evidently have
disappeared into hoards ; and, while it is no doubt one of
the first duties of a civilized government to provide its sub-
jects with the currency they desire for circulation, it can
hardly be its duty to furnish them with an unlimited
number of coins for the purpose of hoarding. There is the
further disadvantage in the recent great addition to the
number of rupee coins in India that, when the price of
silver measured m gold falls — as it seems Ukely to do — and
the value of the silver in a rupee is again much below
one-tenth of the value of the gold in a sovereign, the
existence of such an enormous quantity of token rupee coins
(now about 4,000 millions) may make it difficult, if not im-
possible, for the Secretary of State to maintain the exchange
value of the rupee at 2s , reckoned in gold, in accordance
with the policy he has recently announced.

A Guide to the India Oificl Rr cords, 1600 1858 By William
loster, ci E, Registrar and Superintendent of Records (London
Printed for the India Office ) 1919 2s net

{Reviewed by the Dean of Winciifster.)

Those who have worked among the manuscripts at the India Office must
often have felt the need of a compendious guide to what is to be found
there In spite of the knowledge and kindness of officials, time is
inevitably wasted in the search Mr. S C HiU’s catalogue of the Orme
manuscripts has already proved of considerable value to students Now
Mr William Foster has produced a guide to all the different classes of
documents under his charge which will make work comparatively easy.
Rarely does so small a book contain so much useful information

How necessary it has been to keep an eye upon the destructive habits of

3S2

Reviews and Notices

officials, even in quite recent times, is to be seen from what Mr Foster
tells in his interesting preface, that even so lately as the time of Sir John
Kaye, “ It was contemplated to destroy the minutes of the India Board,
but fortunately this proposal was dropped while the records of the Court
of Sadr Diwam were only saved by the interposition of Sir George Clarke,
tie Under Secretary of State, who suggested that it would be wise to
ascertain first whether the original records were available in Calcutta "

A number of official lists has, of course, been issued in past years, but
these have not been accessible to the public, and use of the press lists will
in some cases still be necessary in order to identify a volume that may be
required , but Mr hostcr s extremely lucid and interesting introduction to
each section of the records, with his clear enumeration of the different
volumes or bundles will reduce the beginners labour to a minimum
When it is remembered that the number of documents dealt with is
something like forty eight thousand, the magnitude of the task which Mr
boster has accomplished will be recognized Not only is he to be con
gratulated and warmly thanked for what he has done, but this seems a
suitable opportunity to express how greatly indebted are all who study the
history of British India, whether in the manuscripts of the India Office or
in the records which have been printed, to the energy, knowledge, and
courtesy of Mr I oster and his assistants

NEAR EAST

I he Turks in Euroi r By \\ F IJ Allen \\ ith Preface by Brigadier
General Surtees {Murray ) ios 6d

At a time when 1 urkey s ultimate fate is so much discussed and
opinions are voiced everywhere as contradictory as they are numerous, a book
such as Mr Allen s, giving a concise, but nevertheless complete survey of
the Ottoman people is much to be recommended In his opening chapter
the author puts the question ‘ How v\as it possible for an obscure tribe
of nomad shepherds from the steppes of Central Asia to impose its
dominion upon at least a dozen nations of Europe? and he refers to this
same question again at the end of his book

He answers it in the following way “A study of the history of the
Balkans for the last 500 years is the illuminating clue to the Turks being
left so long in possession of thL most beautiful spot in the world
Constantinople and the shores of the Bosphorus The fact is that the
eternal vultures gathered round the eternal corpse Neither the Treaty of
Carlovicz, although it meant the first partition of Turkey, nor the Treaty
of Versailles in 1763 — still less the Congress of Vienna— brought any
vital solution The table of the history of the Near East is littered with
scraps of paper Intolerance, savagery, callousness, exploitation,

down to all centuries, to the twentieth century Yet it has been generally
agreed that the Turkish Question and the Balkan claims might have had a
chance to be settled at the Treaty of Bucharest in 191a, when Bulgaria,
Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro combined m attacking the Turk

Reviews and Notices

353

Mr Allen rightly points out u that human nature is such that man is
spoiled by victory. The Nationalist proves himself to be an Imperialist by
victory, and the Patriot develops into an Annexationist ” To Serbians
and Greeks the Second Balkan War appeared to be a deliverance, a
crowning mercy, but six years of subsequent history have sufficed to show
that it was not only for Bulgarians, but for Serbians, Greeks, and
Rumanians alike, an unmitigated catastrophe Indeed, the lreaty of
Bucharest, instead of bringing peace, a permanent Balkan League, and an
amicable settlement with Turkey, worked for the future “ great war which
exploded in 1914 And now, after years of a most temble warfare, we in
Europe still find ourselves confronted by the same Eastern Question
The much coveted possession of Constantinople has certainly not meant
for Turkey the dominion of the world, as it would have meant for
Napoleon He it was who, placing his finger on that spot of the map
after his meeting at Tilsit with Alexander I , who claimed Constantinople for
Russia, exclaimed passionately “ Constantinople, Constantinople, never,
for it is the Fmpire of the World' ’ Yet there was a time, if we look
centuries back, when the Turks, under their great Sultans (1 359*1 566),
Othman, Orkan, Murad and Bayazid, Mohamed the Conqueror, Selim,
and Soliman the Magnificent, had attained a world power which threatened
Europe. And here we must recall the fact that Turkey, in her Augustein
age under Suleiman, with whom the shrewd Francis I had thought it
advisable to form an alliance, not only bad an army composed of tbe
valiant and much redoubted Janmssarus, but that she had also a navy
which reigned supreme in the Mediterranean

The story of the rise of Turkish sea-power, says Mr Allen, “ is one of
the most amazing chapters m history 1 he huge red bearded Kheir ed din
a Greek from Mytilene, beginning with a single pirate galley, created
for Suleiman in a few years a fleet winch dominated the Mediterranean
J rom their bases, including Toulon, his Corsair admirals carried their
raids, not only along the coasts of Spain, trance, and Italy, but even
as far as Ireland and Tngland At sea Suleiman’s arms, as on land, were
crowned with success Without exaggeration it can be stated that
throughout his reign this powerful Sultan was the arbiter of Europe , and
that, because he ruled with a rare enlightenment and toleration over an
Empire which included not only Sunnis and Shns, but large populations of
Roman Catholics, Orthodox Greeks, Jews, and Armenians Unfortunately
tor Turkey, Suleiman was succeeded by Sultans who were cowardly and
sensual degenerates, under whom the centre of administration was trans-
ferred from the so-called Divan to the harem. Voltaire, writing of one ol
these later Sultans, describes them as shut u| in their harem among their
women and eunuchs, seeing only through the eyes of their Grand Viziers
most of them incapable and given to corruption It is true, as Mr. Allen
maintains, that Suleiman had first made harem influence paramount by his
unbounded devotion to his concubine, the witty and attractive Roxelana, a
Russian, who even succeeded in causing him to murder his own legitimate
sons to make way for her son Selim to succeed " He was the first Sultan
to neglect the advice of his Divan, or Grand Council of State, for that of

354

Review* and Notices

his favourites. Yet he had that greatest gift m rulers — the instinct to
choose the right men for the right place, but he created a precedent which
had disastrous results when pursued by his successors, nearly all lacking m
balance and discernment

In perusing Mr Allen’s instructive book, it becomes dear to us that
Turkey steadfastly declined after the death of the great Suleiman in 1566,
and this owing to the misrule of most of her autocratic rulers Even
Mahmud II., who had the welfare of his country more at heart than his
immediate predecessors and successors, could not arrest this decline Nor
later, did the Minister Midhat succeed, who tried to introduce reforms
under the dissolute Abdul Assis, who eventually caused his death The
Young Turks, too, who then tried to avert the downward course of their
country, were hindered in their endeavours by the fierce Abdul Hamid.
And now that we have come to another turning point in Turkey's history,
we may well ask ourselves what the next development may be The
feeling among Indian Moslems is well known Is it expedient for
Great Britain to give way and leave the Sultan to reside at Constantinople ?
Will Turkey find at last disinterested help from an unbiassed quarter
which alone might save her ?

Mr Allen concludes his highly interesting and, we may well say, under
the circumstances, his important book, by quoting the well known essayist,
L£on Ostrorog “More than any the Turks suffer and we may

add, also the unlucky nations that have been under Iurkish rule to
this da) L M R

ART

Mobi Architecture Its Origins \nd Deuioi mini By G 1
Rivoira Translated from the Italian b) G McN Rushforth {Oxford
Urm ersity Press ) 1918 jQ 2 2s net

(AV, tnved /^1)r T W Arnold, lie)

In recent years one of the most fruitful fields of research in the history
ot architecture has been Asia Minor and the countries adjacent to it,
particularly Syria and Mesopotamia Excavations and detailed examina-
tion of the buildings at Samarra, Mshatta, Ukhaidir, Amida, etc , have
borne fruitful results and have provided a mass of fresh materials unknown
to any earlier generation of students Not only has much light been
thrown on the early history of Moslem architecture, but important modifica
tions have been suggested in regard to former theories of the relations
between the architecture of East and West In the field of study none
has been more active than Professor Strzygowski, who in a number of
publications has emphasized the importance in architectural development
of the influence of the East In opposition to the prevailing opinion
which credited the Romans with the invention of the arch and the dome,
and ascribed to Roman monuments the first impulse out of which grew
the cathedrals and other great buildings of the Western world during the

Reviews and Notices

355

Middle Ages, Professor Strzygowski claims priority of inventive genius for
the East. It was the Iranian genius, he maintains, that first employed the
dome for monumental works of art, and the use of this architectural form
first spread westward from the Mesopotamian valley I he study of the
early monuments of Armenian Christian art has led him to the conclusion
that it was from Asia Minor that Western Christianity first learned those
forms of ecclesiastical architecture that later passed through such a rich
and magnificent development in the Middle Ages Similarly, Moslem
architecture was represented by him as being genuinely Oriental in its
ongin, and as requiring no reference to Rome for the explanation of its
sources

To this opinion the whole of Commendatore Rivoira’s thesis is in flat
contradiction, and he reasserts the claim of Rome to be the teacher of
both Oriental Christianity and of Islam in the art of building His conten
tton is that “it was in Pagan Rome that the conception of the annular
rotunda, with columns or piers, vaulted and crowned with a true and proper
dome was created and developed All that the East did was

occasionally to product circular buildings ot unbroken outline, with an
internal colonnade designed as an additional support for the roof, which
was usually conical m form But whenever an Eastern architect

wanted to cover the central space of such buildings with a vault, he had
to turn to Roman models for the design" (pp <59 6°) He claims that
the ideas unbodied in the plans and construction of the great Roman
buildings were spread abroad by means of I atin architects educated in
the Roman school Accordingly, he rejects the theory that has sometimes
been upheld that the original plan of the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem was
Byzantine or Hellenistic in origin, is being derived from Constantine’s
round churches, on the ground that tin se latter themselves owed their
ongin to Roman models Similarly, he denies that the vaulted pendentive
denotes Oriental influence, and traces it to the hemicycles used by the
Romans as supports for domes

Such are the main conclusions as to architectural origins enunciated by
Commendatore Rivoira m the present work and they are elaborated with a
wealth of historical detail seldom found in technical treatises on architecture
The early history of the great archetypes of the ecclesiastical architecture
of Islam, the first mosques built at Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, and
Cairo has never been presented to the English reader with such a fulness
of detail, gathered from an immense variety of sources Incidentally, in
vindication of his main thesis, Commendatore Rivoira has collected a
nu nber of references to the foreign craftsmen who were borrowed by the
early caliphs for the erection of these buildings, especially in Jerusalem
and Damascus, and the large part played by Christian architects in the
designing of them

As the author indicates by the title of his book, he does not claim to
have written a history of Moslem architecture as a whole, and his detailed
study of the early mosques (which served as models for later constructions
of the same character) m the chief centres of primitive Moslem culture
forms the first main section of his work He then passes on to Armenian

356

Reviews and Notices

ecclesiastical architecture, and as an increasing amount of attention is now
being paid to Armenia, English readers will welcome the ample materials
here provided for the study of a branch of Christian art that has hitherto
received scant recognition in our literature. His conclusions are briefly
that the main features of the Armenian church style, the apse, the cupola,
and the pendentive, are of Romano Ravennate origin The last section
of his book deals with Spain, and is mainly taken up with a patient
investigation of the problem of the horseshoe arch in the Moslem architec
ture of Spain The author shows that it was not invented by the
Visigoths, and supports his contention by an examination of the few
genuine Visigothic churches that have survived, distinguishing between
what is authentic and what is later addition to, or reconstruction of, the
ongmal structure Neither in the \isigothic buildings nor in those
erected by the Moslems in the early period of their occupation of Spain,
was the horseshoe arch adopted , and the author shows that its introduction
into Spain was due to Abd al Rahman I (756-788), and that it was first
used as a constructive element in ihe great mosque at Damascus, that was
built with such extraordinary magnificence by the caliph Walid (705 715)
Such, in brief outline, is the substance of this work published in an
attractive form by the Oxford University Press It is abundantly illustrated,
mainly by photographs of the buildings described, but also by plans, several
of which are taken from little-known MSS The author rightly anticipated
that his book would arouse controversy, but added, “ it is often from the
contact of opposing views that a spark of light is struck ’ Any work that
arouses interest in Moslem culture at the present time is welcome, and
the artistic side of this culture found such pre eminent and remarkable
expression m architecture, largely through its connection with religion,
that Commend itore Rivoira s book ought to find many readers It is
matter for deep regret that his untimely death has cut short a literary
activity so stimulating and of such special interest to Fnghsh students
It is unfortunate that the translation was not submited to the scrutiny
of some Orientalist before being sent to press Some errors in personal
names might thus have been avoided — e g , Nasin Khusrau becomes
generally Nasirv Rusru, and on p 57 Nasin Kursu Several other names
are written according to the Italian method of transliteration, with strange
results 111 an English text Ignorance of Arabic has led the translator
several times to write Midmet (city) for Minaret — eg, p 93 Madinet Isa
{Minaret 0/ Jesus'), p 91 Madinet al Arus {Minaret of the Wife), it should
be, rather, Minaret of the Bride But these are trifling blemishes in a work
that throughout exhibits a careful and minute scholarship

GENERAL

My French Ye\r By Constance Elizabeth Maud {Mills and Boon.)
10s 6d net.

“ Lest we forget " The great clarion call in the midst of this war has,
contrary to the expectations of all but the incorrigible cynic, become

Reviews and Notices

357

fainter The pleadings of international finance, the claims of trade
interests have sought to envelop in a cloud of oblivion the deathless deeds
of comradeship in arms. In this atmosphere of selfishness and mutual
recrimination, the words of Miss Constance Maud are like the fresh wind
of truth which scatters the clouds of misunderstanding, to brace our nerves
and admon h us to remember our friends This volume should be on the
shelves of all students of the Eastern Question, and we hope their number
is increasing They should not forget that, in solving the Sjnan question,
the far sighted policy is to co-operate with France, and to hold sacred her
martyrdom in the Great War

Our Mahometan readers in particular will be touched by the following
quotation

‘ A little corner was reserved for the Mahometans of the Senegalese
regiments, their graves marked by the Crescent and Star, together with the
French colours and a verse of the Koran The Great War has gathered
into one fold all nationalities, all religions all classes, the C ross and the
C rescent, the white and the black races Monsieur le Due lies side by side
with the peasant poilu y the same flag and the same inscription mark the
simple graves — ‘ Mort pour la patne 5

Ihe bodies of these heroes lie in the soil of Fiance at Noyon, but their
spirit survives, and their bravery and self sacrifice will be reverenced long
after the present bickerings and misunderstandings are happily forgotten

I R S

KLSblA

The Boi shj-vik Am enture By John Pollock ( Constable ) 7s 6d
{Rei:ru.ed by Major-Genfral Coini A Chlkii Siiridowich)

Mr John Pollock s book, " The Bolshevik Adventure is an important
document on the character and achievements of the Bolsheviks, a tael
attested b> the violent animosity displayed by reviews in pro Bolshevik
organs Mr Pollock's equipment for his task is unimpeachable A
trained historian, having been one of the late i ord Acton s favourite
pupils at Cambridge, he comes of a well known family, being the son and
heir of the Rt Hon Sir Frederick Pollock His previous study of Russia
("War and Revolution m Russia ) proves him a man of liberal instincts
and accurate observation Moreover, he speaks Russian fluently, having
lived and travelled in the country for four jears and was a witness of the
Bolshevik regime, not from the point of vn,w of a personally conducted
official, but from that of a pnvate individual forced to make the best he
could of everyday life

His account of the many months which he spent disguised as a Lettish
communist from America, ending with his arrest, narrow escape from
torture and death, and dangerous flight across the frozen sea to Finland,
forms one of the most thrilling narratives of contemporary literature
We are here, however, less concerned with Mr Pollocks work as good
reading than with the results 0/ his observations in Russia since October

35 «

Reviews and Notices

1917, when the Bolsheviks reappeared after their failure in July Two
main conclusions may be drawn First, the Bolshevik rule is one of alien
force, imposed by “The Hidden Hand,” supported by Lettish, Chinese,
and Magyar bayonets, loathed alike by all the people, including the
peasants and, after a bnef period of delusion, workmen, as well as the
intelligentsia Second, that Bolshevism was established by ( ermany, has
been intimately linked with Germany throughout its history, and is
directed for the advantage of Germany and the defeat and disruption of the
British Empire Mr Pollock s account of two episodes, little known here,
is illuminating we mean the murder of Count Mirbach, the German
Ambassador in Moscow, in July, 1918, and the suppression of the rising at
Yaroslav] shortly afterwards.

Mirbach, according to Mr Pollock and my own experience, was
practically dictator of Moscow, had some thirty thousand troops in the city,
and direct telegraphic communication with Berlin For his advent
Moscow was placed cn fite and put again into some sort of order A
characteristic touch is that to celebrate the occasion the statue of
Skobelev, the enemy of the Germans- — who was poisoned by them — was
destroyed by the Bolsheviks

As soon as C ount Mirbach saw my very anti-German Review, Slavta , he
ordered my son, who, in collaboration with me and anothei son, was editor
of Slaita, to be arrested

Slavia appealed to the nation to cast out the Germans

During that crucial time /or the Allies when, in March and April, the
Gcimans piessed the Mlits “to the wall, ’ according to general knowledge,
Slavia circulated kafltts and encouiaged and incited all the anti Germans
by proclaiming “ Germany s defeat is imminent. ' Such strenuous pro
paganda from a man whom the Germans knew to be a “ prophet ” and a
“Verbissener Deutschen-fresser (according to the famous Theodore
Wolff, editor of the Berliner Tageblatt) compelled Germany to detain in
Russia a considerable number of her troops, which otherwise might have
helped the Gennans to push on to Paris

But alas' my two most beloved sons have paid for this service by
their dear lives. When those leaflets headed “Germany’s d^bicle is
imminent” had inspired the hearts of the Czecs and given birth to
the “ white troops,” Mr Wordrup— the British Consul-General m Moscow
— showed me No. 79 of the Official “ Izvestia,” with a terrific warning
to me

“ General, stop your most dangerous propaganda, otherwise no Titanic
Force on earth can save you ” My sons and I, however, decided to
continue, and answered by a new issue of Slavia with renewed appeals to
cast out the criminal Germans and to create a defensn>e line along the
Volga, fighting for each village

I even wrote to Trotsky “ I consent to become your strong supporter ,
if you will undertake to renew the war against Germany, and I promise
you that she will surely be beaten ”

The new issue of Slavta and my letter decided the enemies to act
Both my sons were foully murdered after forty-eight hours of torture. I

Reviews and Notices

359

went up to the tiger’s mouth, to the Commission, and saw first its
President, Derjinsky, and the next time the Vice-President, Sachs. It
became clear to me that Bolshevism is only a camouflaged “ Hidden
Hand ” The nephew of the German Ambassador — Baron Mirbach —
even lived in the Commission’s apartments and kept his own motor-car
there Then also I discovered the marvellous intuition and foresight of
Mr Winston Churchill People here stupidly ridiculed his ardent desire
to annihilate, at any cost, that most dangerous man called “Peter the
Painter,” in Sidney Street, Houndsditch, who, assuming the name of Peters,
was one of Berlin’s best agents, trying to promote anarchy here

“ Peters ” was the soul of this Commission. He signed death sentences
by thousands, leaving blank spaces for the names of the victims, and
handed all these to Baron Mirbach, who inscribed the names, or he asked
the Count — the Ambassador of Germany — for those names
Both Derjinsky and Sachs asked me personally

“Was it you, General, who, in 1905, sent the so called ‘Latin Tele-
grams

These telegrams decided the 1 ?ar to agree to the Anglo Russian Fntente
after seventy seven years of mutual, senseless mistrust between two great
peoples

I answered * Yes, I sent them

Derjinsky, vho is a Foie, as my mother was, and to whom I spoke
m my mothers tongue, was much overcome and said sadly

“ I shall do my utmost to save \ou , General, and both your sons ”

Sachs became fierce on hearing the same thing from me later With
wild joy he went to ring the bell, but a sudden demoniacal smile distorted
his face and he shouted

‘ Go, General, you are stilt free ”

Next day in the official organ appealed in huge letters
‘ The Imperial Guard Officers [my sons ] were shot for State treason ”

It was a sunny Sunday, but they were tortured until Iuesday. No
Russian soldiers would consent to murder them, and at last Letts did so.
Lven the most revolutionary paper dared to protest

” At least permit those unfortunates to su the sky in their last moments
Do not assassinate them in hidden cellars like rats
Lnknown people came to shake me by the hand and promised revenge
It was the last straw which decided Mirbach's fate Derjinsky protested
against my execution He said that my death would be too small a
punishment and promised them to kill nie later, when my unendurable
grief should have driven me mad

Then I published my last Slavia, with the portraits of my beloved sons,
and again warning that Germany would be defeated

The day when Mirbach was annihilated I disappeared from Moscow,
and escaped to General Frederick Poole, Commander m-Chief of the
\lhed forces in Murmansk, asking him to bnng his troops up against the
Bolsheviks

Once again the marines of General Maynard saved me, when I was
arrested near Kem by the Bolsheviks, who did not yet know that he had

360

Reviews and Notices

arrived there We could surely have taken Moscow if General Frederick
I’oole had simply had 30,000 soldiers instead of only five or six thousand
Mirbach, Mr Pollock points out, was assassinated by the Social
Revolutionaries, who realized that Russia was being sold to Germany bj
the Bolsheviks, a view confirmed by Trotsky s comment on the deed, that
it was aimed, not against Berlin, but against the Soviet power And at
Yaroslavl, when the Russians rose against the Bolshevik tyranny, the
rebellion was put down, not by Russian troops, but by Germans under
a German officer If General Poole had then arrived with even 10,000
soldiers Bolshevism would have been doomed Behind every move in
the Bolshevik game Mr Follock shows the “ Hidden Hand,” and in a
powerful piece of rhetoric attempts to rouse his readers against the policy
that the “ Hidden Hand has imposed on Great Britain ever since the
Pnnkipo negotiations His view is that unless we put down the Bolsheviks
they will put us down “Down with the Bolsheiiks! he says must be
the modem version of “ Delenda est Carthago ’ ’

While actual atrocities do not figure in Mr Pollock’s book, he draws a
graphic picture of the terrible state of misery and degradation to which
the Bolshevik rule has reduced Russia He shows the peasant refusing
to produce, the friends of Great Britain slaughtered, the cities artificially
starved, anarchy created deliberately so that it might afford an excuse for
despotism The chapters on "Communism in Practice and "Hungry
Petrograd ” set forth an array of facts that are damning to the system
responsible for them They must be read in order to be appreciated and,
were governments moved by evidence, would constitute an absolute bar
against any project of dealing with the Bolsheviks either commercially or
diplomatically

In a Preface addressed to the late Major R M Johnstone, the American
military critic whose work on the United Stales staff attracted such attention
Mr Pollock touches on the faults of “ Allied Policy in Russia ” His
prediction, based on knowledge of the Bolshevik plans, of the attack to be
made on our Eastern empire, has already received striking fulfilment

‘‘The Bolshevik Adventure is brilliantly written It should be in the
hands of everyone who pretends to form a judgment on the most vital
problem of our day

QUOTATIONS FROM PERIODICALS

A GREAT AMBASSADOR

We have received a copy of Millard, s Knew of the Far East , containing
an authoritative account of the work in China, extending over forty three
years, of Sir John Jordan, kcmg. Minister Plenipotentiary at Peking
since 1906 We quote as follows

“ An old and experienced Englishman has given five reasons as to why
this great British statesman and diplomat is a successful minister, and
they possess more than average interest, summarizing as they do the fore
going considerations of the various characteristics of Sir John The first

Reviews and Notices

361

reason is Sir John’s intimate knowledge of China and the Chinese
language, and his experience with the Chinese The second reason is his
surpassing ability The third reason is his high sense of honour and
justice Fourthly, Sir John is absolutely devoted to his duty The fifth
reason is his persistent hard work These are five reasons for his success
in China ‘Sir John,’ said the old gentleman, ‘has a high sense of
honour and justice If any injustice has ever been done to China, it is
not Sir John who has done it or countenanced it He is the last man who
would do anything dishonourable

THE MEDITERRANEAN TANGLE

In the March issue of the Fortnightly Reiteu , Mr H Charles Woods
concludes an important article, entitled “ British Interests in the
Mediterranean as follows

1 o summarize and to recapitulate, it may be said that even if the
defeat of the Central Empires and the disappearance of their fleets
lemoves a formerly existing threat to our sea power, that power cannot be
di. f ri ely and permanently safeguarded without adequate forethought as
to the distribution of territories in themselves possessed of weighty
strategic significance The Mediterranean the I gean, the Dardanelles
and tne Black Sea are maritime areas the situations in which are vital to
the safety of the British Empire 1 he suggested cession of Cyprus may
be resented by thast who have not studied the problem and it may be
resisted by naval authorities, who are. rightly oj posed to sacrifices, how
ever relatively unimportant they may be But if it becomes a choice
between the maintenance of an antiquated pistol, pointing towards the
coasts of Syria and Southern Asia Minor and the acquisition of an all
important p nut d appui at *hc entrance to the Dardanelles, then there
seuns little doubt as to the proper policy of adoption by British
statesmanship

ARTICLES TO NO IE

Hu Wide World Ma^a^me (March) Across Unknown Arabia in Dis
guise by H St 1 B Philby, c 1 fc , 1 c s
The Journal J the Kiyal United Service Institution (Iebruary) “The
Turkish Army in the Great War, by I leut Colonel C C R
Murphy, 1 a

The Royal Engineers Journal (March) I he Works Directorate, Meso
potamia Lxpeditionary Torce

The Mid Pacific Magazine ‘ Canton — Centre of New South China, by
S R Brown

Russo British Chamber of Commerce Journal (February) “Siberia from
the Canadian Point of View by T A Brayley Hodgetts
The Wireless World (March) ' ireless Telegraphy in the Red Sea
during the War, by Commander G Montefinale
The Bulletin of the School of Oriental Stu lies (Vol I Part III ) “The
Popular Literature of Northern India," bv Sir George Grierson
Britain and India (March) “I)r Tej Bahacur Sapru, ’ by the Editor
Rezue des Balkans , Pans (February) “ L Armeme renaissante, by
Boghoa Nubar Pacha

Iniian Periodicals “Hindu Colonization of Java, by O Coomar
Gangoly

Japanese Periodicals , Japan Magazine (January) “ Economic Menace, ”
by Baron T Kuki

WHERE EAST AND WEST MEET

A RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE DAY, AT HOME,
BEARING ON ASIATIC QUESTIONS

[The Proceedings of the East India Association will be found on pp 217
295 The Lecture for April 19th will be “ India and the Covenant of
the League of Nations,” by K Gauba, and for May “ Tamil Proverbs
a Key to the Language and to the Mind of the People " by S G
Roberts (1 c s retired) ]

INDIAN MUSIC

By Stanley Rice, i c.s. (retd.)

{Summary of a Lecture delivered before the Incorporated Society of Musicians
at the Polytechnic , Regent Street )

Far from music being the universal language, the music of the ancients
is quite unintelligible to-day, and the music of Asia and Africa has no
meaning for the European It can, however, be learnt , it is only the
ignorant who despise what they cannot understand The proper view to
take of Indian music, which dates back into the far distant past, is that
it is an unexplored branch of the art differing from, and yet existing side
by aide with, our own

The influence of religion on all art, except perhaps architecture, has
always been restrictive and tyrannical Just as m painting Botticelli burst
the religious bonds and introduced secular art, so in music the fetters in
which the monks had bound hei were broken by Haydn, by Gluck, and
especially by Mozart Since the revolt was established we have been
given absolute and vocal music in superb quality and in quantity almost
unlimited

In India religion has not yet lost its hold on music and that for two
main reasons Religion, both in its esoteric and its ceremonial forms,
enters so completely into the everyday life of the people that it would be
strange if tt did not largely control the music. Moreover, the music has
been handed down through the ages and, as there is no notation, it is
traditional. There are, of course, love songs, and there is also folk-music,
but, for the reasons given, the best music is religious and the art is,
therefore, hampered because excursions into absolute music or into the
many branches of song must be restricted by the dominant idea.

Indian music is entirely melodic, and so differs fundamentally from the
harmonic music of Europe Viewed in this way, Indian music has not

IVhere East and West Meet

363

developed to the same extent as that of Europe, since the combination
required by an orchestra must connote a higher stage of development
than mere melodic variations on a single instrument The usual composi
tion of an Indian “ orchestra” is one leading instrument, the vina, the
flute, the violin (imported from Europe), or the human voice, accompanied
by the drum, the most characteristic of all Indian instruments, and the
harmonium to give the drone or pedal note With these instruments they
produce variation after variation, based upon the ancient *' rags,’’ or
themes, and performed with the most astonishing flexibility This
capacity for infinite variation is the chief glory of the Indian art, and
Indians esteem highly the musician who can not only reproduce the works
of the great masters but can add variations of his own In Southern
India the names of some of these masters are 1 biagarajayya, the
acknowledged king, Somayya Sistn, Dekshitulu and Subramama Aiyar —
all Brahmans

The most characteristic Indian instruments are the vma, the flute, and
the drum The vma is a kind of guitar with four strings regulated by
frets and one free or open string which gives the basic note 1 he flute
is a simple hollow bamboo with holes for the stops, and is said to be the
same as that on which Krishna played The drum is barrel shaped and
the skin at each end is composed of circles of different thickness, so that
it is capable of great variety when played with the different parts of the
hand — the tips of the fingers, the open palm, and so forth The violin is
an importation from Europe and is well adapted to the minutely sub
divided Indian scales It is held, not under the chin, but downwards, as
we hold the cello The concerts are arranged on the plan of a recital
To day the vma will be the leading instrument, to-morrow the flute, the
day after the human voice — male or female I he players sit on a dais on
the floor, the principal performer in the centre, the drum on his right, and
the harmonium on his left 1 he pedal, or basic note, is given by the
harmonium, and then the leading instrument strikes in, but the drum is
silent. This is the “rag,’ a complete movement in itself The Hindu
audience will follow every note of it, beating time and humming the
music Then comes the “ krithi, or the variations by the master, into
whicl the drum enters , after the * Krithi is the “ pallava, * or variations
by the performer, and lastly if the artist is capable of it, an astonishing
solo on the drum

1 he rest of the concert is of the same description, but every new piece
has its charm for the Indian audience They value especially the power
to vary the work even of a master , to play the notes, they think, alwa>s
in the same way, exactly as they are written, destroys freshness and
elasticity That is one of their chief arguments against notation, for if you
have the wntten note before you you tend to become a slave to it They
will admit that no two pieces are played quite alike, but would argue that
diversity of temperament is not enough The player should be able to
put more of his own personality into the music A school, however, is
growing up which favours notation, which, it is recognized, gives the best
chance of progress

364 Where East and West Meet

England has done nothing to help On the contrary, what music is
taught at all is bad European music, atrociously taught It is just as well
that it is left to the Hindus themselves to look after their own art, though
under present conditions it must remain unprogressive

On Thursday, February 19, Mr H Charles Woods delivered an
interesting lecture on “ Constantinople and the Straits/ at the National
Liberal Club The Hon Aubrey Herbert, m p (in the chair), intro-
duced the lecturer as one of the experts on the Near East, and added
that Englishmen can move about m the Near East as welcome fnends of
all these antagonistic nationalities

Mr Woods, after paying a tribute to the late Sir Edwin Pears, whom
he called the greatest British authority on Constantinople and Turkey,
declared that the importance of the Near Eastern question had been
consistently ignored 1 his had again been shown now by the delay in
settling Turkey We now perceived the consequences in the encourage
ment given to the Young Turks and the new massacres of Armenians
lhere were two main dangers to be guarded against (1) Pan Germanism,
(2) misgovern ment of the non Turkish people With regard to Con
stantmople, he recommended that the Turks should remain there, but
that gome form of control was needed over the land on either side of the
Strait He recalled in this connection Mr 1 loyd Georges pledge and
the announcement of H H The Aga Khan and Mr Ameer All This
would eliminate the rivalry of Greeks and Bulgarians, and the Turks could
be better put under Luropean control Moreover, the city was in
majority Moslem by race Armenia should be either independent of
Turkey or a suzerainty ought to be maintained in a shadowy form He
suggested a High Commissioner, responsible to the League of Nations
In Asia Minor the Turks should be kept in Anatolia which is their own
homeland but with due protection for the Christians

The Hon Aubrey Herbert paid a tribute to the loyalty of Indian
Moslems during the war, and said that we had been able to enjoy it
because they relied on our word and knew that their religion would never
be touched

There was a meeting on Saturday, Tebruary 21, of the Budokwai at
15, Lower Grosvenor Place S W i, when Dr Inazo Nitobe (who, it will
be remembered, contributed an article on Japanese Colonization to the
January issue of the Asiatic Rei iew) lectured on the subject of Japanese
women, in which he laid special stress on their great influence in the
home, and testified that their stature had greatly increased during the
last generation

Mr H Shepheard, mrcs.lrcp, was m the chair

There was a meeting of the Central Asian Society in the rooms of the
Royal Astronomical Society on Wednesday, February 18, when the Hon
W G M Ormsby Gore, m p , lectured on British responsibilities m the
Middle East, and pleaded eloquently for the establishment of a special

Where East and West Meet 365

department in London to deal with the affairs of those parts He expressed
the hope that private enterprise, as far as possible, would take the place
of State control The Civil Service should be a small staff of highly
trained and excellently paid officials who ought to begin their careers m
the Middle East, and be removable if unsatisfactory Lord Carnock
(in the chair) expressed his approval of the lecturer’s views, and Sir
Francis Younghusband also spoke

There was a meeting of the Oriental Circle of the Lyceum Club on
Thursday, February 12, when Sir Sankaran Nair delivered an address on
Hinduism, which was closely followed by a large company, including
Princess Dulep Singh, Miss Powell (Hon Sec), Miss Beck, Maha
Dingeri Singh, Mrs Wmgrove Cook (in the chair), Mrs Josephine
Ransom, Madame O’Donnell, Miss Manning, Mr K N Das Gupta,
Mrs Pope, Miss Mehta, Mrs John Maltwood, Mrs White, Major Graham
Pole, Mrs French Sheldon

J he Armenian ( ommittee in London gave a dinner at the Carlton
Hotel on February 28 in honour of His Beatitude the Armenian Patriarch
of Constantinople, His Excellencj Nubar Pasha and Mr Akaroman
represenung the Armenian Republic The Patriarch declared that he
was deeply moved by the sympathy that had been accorded him and his
country e\ cry where m England It was tragic to think that massacres
were still taking place in Armenia Nubar Pasha pointed out that the
questions of Constantinople and Armenia must be kept apart , and there
had been an unfortunate tendency to confuse them Mr Akaroman described
the sufferings that his countrymen had undergone through the ages The
dawn was at last approaching Mr Aneunn Williams, M p, said that at
the time when Byron wrote the freedom of Greece seemed still a distant
dream — to be realized a few years later The great dreams about Armenia,
and many other countries in the Near Fast, were now, too, to come true
Mr Malcolm (in the chair) announced that Mr Harold Buxton had that
evening arrived from Cilicia with the latest news Sir J D Rees, m p ,
in an amusing speech, replying to the toast of the Houses of Parliament,
paid a tribute to the Lords, where members had such far greater facilities
of obtaining a proper bearing than in the Commons

There was a meeting of the China Society on February 36 at the
School of Oriental Studies, when a paper was read by Captain Inman
on the Burmese Shan States, where he had served as a frontier officer
He described the country as worthy of develooment Silver and lead
mines were in existence, the Southern Shan States Syndicate was
carrying on mining operations in 1914 Teak wood was found in the
Salween Valley Further, there were the wood oil, silk-cotton, and paper
mulberry trees, as well as the giant bamboo

Sir Frederick Fryer paid a tribute to the work of our frontier officers
whose lives were lonely, and, at first, were in constant pen! from head-
hunting savages, who greatly hindered railway construction

366

Where East and West Meet

We have received the following from the Russian Relief and Recon*
struction Fund

“ The situation in Russia is a rapidly changing one It has been so
since the first days of the Revolution, and transformations, both rapid and
complete, arc likely to continue until some constitutional form of govern-
ment emerges from the present chaos Under these circumstances it is
difficult to attempt a rigid definition of the future activities of the Russian
Relief and Reconstruction Fund

“ This F und has come into existence to render moral and material
support to Russia, and especially to strengthen the hands of those in that
country who, while they desire its stabilization on firm and sure founda
tions, cannot be suspected of reactionary tendencies.

“ In establishing itself, the first object of the Fund was to seek the co
operation of all existing Anglo-Russian organizations, both philanthropic
and commercial, so that the greatest possible British effort might be
brought to bear on the solution of the problem Russia presents Most of
ffiese organizations are now represented on its Committee

“ Ihe primary purpose of the Fund in its work in Russia will be through
the medium of a carefully chosen English personnel, to promote relief
work — te , care of destitute children, medical work, distribution of cloth-
ing and food, etc , in order to allewate the appalling suffering caused to the
masses of Russia as the result of the war and continued revolution and
civil strife

“At the same time, the Committee of the Fund believes that the most
efficacious way of rendering help is by aiding and promoting the sending
out, on a large scale, of such manufactured goods, medicaments, and
means of transport as this country can supply, in exchange for food pro-
ducts, minerals, and raw materials, which in various districts of Russia are
obtainable in abundance ”

The Indian Caliphate Delegation was received by the Prime Minister on
Friday, March 19th, when Sir William Duke and Mr H A L Fisher
were also present An official report of the proceedings has been issued
to the Press On March 21st a meeting was held at the Mosque, Woking,
and Mr Mohamed Ah delivered a speech, explaining the feelings of
Indian Moslems, a report of which appeared in the Morning Post and
other papers on the following day

3&7

GREEK NOTES

B y F R Slat cherd
I Greece and Constantinople 1

“ Greece should hive Constantinople Her hall mark is over all the
stolen property — From a private letter n r it ten hy Sir A rthur Conan Doyle
Ihe acuteness of the Constantinople problem bnngs into relief the com
petence of Hellenism as the key to its solution. The Supieme Council
seems to be gradually driven to the conclusion that an end must be put to
the 1 urkish domination in Europe, and that this end can only be fittingly
put by the Greek arms — thus avenging in a final battle against the heredi
tary foe of Hellenism the woes and throes of five centuries

lurkey in hurope has been no more than an army of occupation of alien
countries, chiefly Hellenic since the middle of the fifteenth century The
principle of self determination demands the departure of this army
Greece is conscious of her mission to bring about this departure, and has
been patiently waiting for the psychological moment to fulfil it Had it
not been for this ideal, the Greek nation, long ere this, would have been
buried under the pressure of its age long adversities, and even at this
moment, when the Grtek people is suffering as few other peoples in
Europe, it is patiently expectant

Will the Supreme Council be sufficiently illumined to realize what
Hellenism stands for in the world harassing 1 urkish question ?

II " IV HA 1 \RF THL DlMVMIS OF GRFFIv 1 VBOUR ? (M VENIzriOS)
tor ihe moment Greece, in striking self abnegation, forgets all that she
is enduring in the expectation of the signal to inaugurate her career of
social reconstruction Events march so rapidly that the oignal may be
gi en before our next issue In the meantime it is fitting to present
to our readers what a small but earnest parly of recoostructionists, known
as the Greek Labour League suggests as foundation pi inciples for the
future Greece

Some months ago the Greek I abour l eague issued a manifesto, circu
lated by the thousand not only in Greece but among Greek communi-
ties throughout America and elsewhere *

It will be remembered that in Paris, M Veni/elos asked M Drakoules
what were the demands of Greek I abour I his manifesto had already
anticipated the Picmiers question, reproduced in substance here,
embodies three principles, confirmed by the three chief lessons of the
Great War

1 Parliament can only consist of representatives of productive
national exertion

2 The entire community is involved in any desired change

3 Economic solidarity among nations is the only guarantee of
permanent peace

III The Most Imi orient Resuu of the War
is that it has imposed the recognition of tb first principle — namely, the
democratic management of Industry Labour is thus shown to be the
basic force tn national life Hence one of the fundamentals of coming
civilization is that the sovereign council of deputies must consist of repre
sentatives of Labour This principle does away with capitalistic tyranny,
either in the form of Competitive Individualism or of State Socialism

* A copy of the original manifesto can be obtained from M Photopoulos,
becretary, Greek Labour League, 40, Rue du Pir^e, Athens, or from
Mr Geo B Lewis, Secretary, 221, Wells St , Milwaukee, Wis , U S A

368

Greek Notes

This ts Industrial Democracy which , by supplementing the inadequate
political democracy , achieies true freedom

This principle has animated the Greek Labour League since its founda
tion in 1908 While working for this ideal the League advocates details
involved m the endeavour— details which are part of the urgent responsi
bilities of any government during this transitional period, and include
Proper housing and tolerable economic conditions for the producers of
wealth, ensured by stamping out profiteering, chronic and acute , by
taxation of war wealth , by land nationalization , by organization of in
dustnes which cannot be efficiently organized by individuals — the
suspension of constitutional liberties imposed by war complications must
not be prolonged, even for a day, after the settlement of the Bulgarian and
1 urkish questions

The Greek Labour League is also expectant as regards developments
in Russia It does not condemn bona fide experiments such as the
Russian change, but it does condemn anarchy and violence So far,
Bolshevism has shown itself no less tyrannical than, say, the ideals of
Prussian Socialism, or English Individualism The League holds that no
Labour Commonwealth can be complete which disregards the intellectual
factor of national labour Syndicalism is unthinkable, because it limits its
consideration to manual workers only Internationalism, Labour legisla
tion, and Democratic management of all wealth — these are the essentials

IV The Emih Commumh must jie Organized

for the attainment of any object involving the common weal This is the
second principle confirmed by the second lesson derived from the
necessities for carrying out the war Whatever forces have been utilized
for war must be utilized for peace, and it is the duty of the Government to
utilize fruitfully all demobilized forces Minimum wages, ir conjunction
with maximum prices, must be guaranteed by law also a maximum of
income must be fixed

The Ministry of Food must become permanent a Ministry of Health be
created, while the Education budget must be increased fivefold Ihe
object of education is to develop all possible talents for the good of the
nation Every child has a right to life, development, and technical training
A government is an organized agency of the community, and the
essentials of industry and commerce must be entrusted to it Raw
materials transport, communications, banks, manufacture of vital com-
modities — these are fundamentals of national well being , consequently
the State, not the individual is lesponsible for them Private landowner
ship stands in the way of co operattveness, and co operativeness is the only
guarantee of producers against parasites

V New Concei 1 ions of Peace

have been taught by the experiences of the war It was thought that
economic antagonism between nations was a guarantee of international
peace — a conception now obsolete, it being generally recognized that the
only antidotes against wars are economic solidarity and inter-dependence
of nations All nations which admit the axiom that no Government has
wmction unless based on the unfettered consent of the people cannot but
subscribe to the ideal of co operation and federation between democratic
countries for the attainment of Universal Peace.

Surely this is a basis of reconstruction worthy of the best ideals, and
should Mr Venizelos suceed in organizing the forces of Hellenism in time
of peace the blessings of social progress would redound to all

Greece has never considered Constantinople as a national monopoly,
therefore the Hellenic solution would promote the interests of the peoples
of Asia Minor no less than those of the Balkan nations.

THE

ASIATIC REVIEW

JULY, 1920

BRITAIN’S NEW RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE
NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

By the Hon. W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, m.p.

The Supreme Council of the Allies at San Remo decided,
in April, to confer upon Great Britain the power of acting
as mandatory, on behalf of the League of Nations, in
Palestine and Mesopotamia, under Article 22 of the
Covenant entered into by the signatories to the Peace
Treaty of Versailles. This Article in the Peace Treaty
runs as follows :

“To those colonies and territories which as a conse-
quence of the late war have ceased to be under the
sovereignty of the States which formerly governed
them, and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able
to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions
of the modern world, there should be applied the
principle that the well-being and development of such
peoples form a sacred trust of civilization, and that
securities for the performance of this trust should be
embodied in this Covenant.

“ The best method of giving practical effect to this
principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be
entrusted to advanced nations who, by reason of their
resources, their experience, or their geographical
position, can best undertake this responsibility, and
who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage
should be exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf
of the League.

“ The Mandate must differ according to the stage of
the development of the people, the geographical
vol. xvi. 2 B

370 Britain's New Responsibilities

situation of the territory, its economic conditions, and
other similar circumstances.

“ Certain communities formerly belonging to the
Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development
where their existence as independent nations can be
provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of
administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory
until such time as they are able to stand alone. . . .

"In every case of Mandate the Mandatory power
shall render to the Council of the League an Annual
Report in reference to the territory committed to its
charge, the degree of authority, control, or administra-
tion to be exercised by the Mandatory, if not
previously agreed upon by the members of the
League, be explicitly defined in each case by the
Council, and a permanent Commission shall be con-
stituted to receive and examine the Annual Reports
of the Mandatory and to advise the Council on all
matters relating to the observance of the Mandates.”

The above extracts lay down the conditions under which
Great Britain is to exercise power and control in Palestine
and Mesopotamia.

The actual terms of the mandates in both cases form
part of the Turkish Peace Treaty, and in the case of
Palestine the trusteeship of Great Britain contains a
proviso that Great Britain shall give effect to the
policy enshrined in the so-called Balfour Declaration of
November 2, 1917, addressed on behalf of the British
Government to the Zionist Organization. This declaration
of policy is contained in the following letter :

“Foreign Office,

“ November 2 , 19 17.

“ Dear Lord Rothschild,

" I have much pleasure in conveying to you on
behalf of His Majesty’s Government the following declara-
tion of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has
been submitted and approved by the Cabinet :

“ ‘ His Majesty’s Government view with favour the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for the

in the Near and Middle East

37 *

Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to
facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which
may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing
non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights
and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other
country.’

“ 1 should be grateful if you would bring this declaration
to the knowledge of the Zionist Organization.

u Yours sincerely,

“ Arthur James Balfour/’

Thus in Palestine the task of Great Britain is twofold.
In the first place, we have to control and administer
Palestine as a separate new State until such time as it is
able to stand alone ; and in the second place, we are to
give effect to the policy of creating in Palestine a Jewish
national home while maintaining the civil and religious
rights of the existing non-Jewish communities.

The British Administration charged with this task will
have to make an annual report to the Council of the
League of Nations showing what it has done to carry out
the mandate conferred upon it by the civilized nations of
the world.

Similarly in Mesopotamia, Great Britain is charged with
the tutelage and creation of a new Mesopotamian State
consisting of the three former Turkish provinces of Basra,
Baghdad, and Mosul. In the case of Mesopotamia there
is no specific limitation of the policy to be pursued other
than the general limitation that we are to undertake the
government and development of the country as trustees for
the inhabitants until such time as they are sufficiently
stable, civilized and developed that they can stand alone.

In the case of both countries the task imposed upon the
British Administrators is no light one. Both countries
present political problems of the greatest complexity, and
both are countries which require capital and skilled labour
for their economic development There are no portions of

37 * Britain s New Responsibilities

the former Turkish Empire which have suffered more in
the way of moral degradation and economic decay as the
result of 400 years of Ottoman rule. The population of
both countries has been steadily declining. Land has been
going steadily out of cultivation, while the chief aim of
Turkish rule seemed to have been the perpetuation and
increase of religious, racial, and local animosities.

In Mesopotamia the overwhelming majority of the
population of the province of Basra and Baghdad consists
of Mahommedan Arabs of the Shiah sect. The province
of Mosul, on the other hand, consists of a mixed population
of Arabs and Kurds, of whom the greater number are
Mahommedans of the Sunni sect.

All round the fringe of the new Mesopotamian State
there live nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes : Arabs on the
south and west, Kurds to the north, Baktiaris and
Persians on the east ; and the mere protection of the
frontiers and the settled lands against raids tvill prove a
formidable task.

Palestine, also, is liable to similar raids and invasions
from the nomadic tribes from the land east of the Jordan,
and here again the creation of those settled conditions,
without which the rehabilitation of the country is impossible,
will be no light task.

Palestine, however, is a smaller country with a short
frontier to the north, with the sea to the west, and the
sandy desert to the south, and only an open frontier, less
than two hundred miles long, to the east. It presents,
therefore, a much smaller task than the gigantic perimeter
of Mesopotamia, which to all intents and purposes is every-
where an open frontier.

Palestine presents a unique and special problem owing
to its exceptional character as the Holy Land of Christendom
and Jewry, with the consequence that there is practically
no country in the whole world which does not watch with
the closest interest events which take place in that country.
Further, there is no country in the world where the in-

m the Near and Middle East 3 73

habitants, who do not number more than three-quarters of a
million, have been drawn from so many countries or so
many races. Even the Mahommedan population, who are
to-day in the majority, are of mixed racial origin

The Christians of Jerusalem, who number about fifteen
thousand, are divided into about thirty different national
communities or sects, are all in touch with the diplomatic
representatives of their various countries of origin, and,
therefore, the Administration will have to walk warily lest
international complications arise

The Mahommedans of Palestine consist mainly of Arabic-
speaking cultivators, who live in small scattered villages,
farming land either communally owned by the village or
as tenants of absentee landlords A considerable area of
Palestine belonged to the Turkish Crown, and this will no
doubt be now vested in the Mandatory power

In the principal towns of Palestine there exist leading
Mahommedan families , who under the old regime filled all
the many minor government appointments under the Turks ,
they were the farmers of the taxes and the subordinate
officials The Arab national revival during the war has
affected some of the younger men, but it remains to be
seen whether the Mahommedans of Palestine have any
political or economic cohesion at all comparable to the
Zionist effort now being made in the country

Zionism has, of course, its root in the Jewish religion,
although it is often pointed out that many of the leading
Zionists are not conspicuous for their orthodoxy It is
founded upon the idea that the Jews, if they are to survive
under modern conditions as a distinct people with a distinct
mission, must have a national and religious centre The
Zionist view is that this national and religious centre can
only be in the land of the covenant and the prophets, and
we have, therefore, the spectacle of a people schooled in com-
merce, and all the arts and professions of Western civiliza-
tion, rejecting the superior economic attractions of the West
for a land which can never have any great commercial

374 Britain s New Responsibilities

importance, and where the only industry is agriculture, for
the sake of a definitely spiritual and moral ideal.

One sees in Palestine two main types of Jew drawn from
all the different countries of the world. There is the pietist
Jew who gives up his life to religious exercises, and occupies
his whole time as a Nazarite in one or other of the talmudical
schools of Jerusalem, Safed or Tiberias ; and secondly there
Is the more modern Jewish agricultural colonist, who de-
liberately rejects the town life that his forefathers have been
accustomed to for the last two thousand years, and has flung
himself upon the soil of Palestine in conscious effort to re-
create for future generations of Jewish children the pastoral
and agricultural conditions whence the psalmist and prophetic
literature of the Bible arose.

In spite of the disabilities which the Jews suffered under
the Turkish regime, and the continued hostility of certain
sections of the local Mahommedans, this agricultural effort
of the Jews has been already striking in its results.

The two essentials of the Zionist movement in Palestine
are, therefore, a Jewish agricultural revival coupled with
the replacement of the jargons and languages of Europe
by the revival of Hebrew as the living language. Based
on the latter is the new system of Hebrew schools leading
up to the new secular Hebrew University at Jerusalem,
which it is the hope of Zionists will be the cultural centre
for the Jews of the whole world.

It must not be thought that the creation of this Jewish
national home in Palestine under the auspices and guidance of
the British Administration will be easy. It is a policy
which has opponents both in Palestine and outside, and
it undoubtedly implies the gradual transformation of
the character and atmosphere of the social and political
conditions in the country, which will not be always acceptable
to those who were contented with the status quo ante bellum ;
and, further, as in Palestine questions of religion crop
up incessantly at every turn, the British servants who will
be charged with the delicate task of control and administra-

in the Near and Middle East 375

tion will require a special degree of knowledge, sympathy
and tact, greater probably than in any other country where
Britain has hitherto endeavoured to undertake the task of
government- A mere holding of the balance and the scales
of justice between rival races and creeds is not sufficient,
because the Jews and the Christians in Palestine and the
leading Mahommedan families are all highly educated,
civilized people, and the relation between the British
Administrators and the people cannot be the relation of that
of a superior with a subject race or races.

Similarly in Mesopotamia, our object must be the
training and guidance of the native inhabitants in self-
government from the outset. We must be prepared to
sacrifice, if necessary, the ideal of efficiency for the sake of
getting a more important political asset at the earliest
possible moment. Any attempt to push the economic
development of Mesopotamia too quickly, or to introduce
numbers of emigrants of non-Arab race, would merely bring
a host of troubles on to our shoulders. Above all it is
essential that the necessary British and Indian garrisons
should be reduced to a minimum at the outset and that
steps should be taken forthwith to create a locally recruited
force as the main support of the Government.

The geographical position of Mesopotamia makes it of
enormous importance from the point of view of the develop-
ment of aerial transport, and a considerable air force will
be essential in Mesopotamia.

The population of Mesopotamia at present is only about
three millions. When the country is developed, and the irri-
gation system of the ancient civilizations has been gradually
restored, there will be room and support for ten times this
population, and Mesopotamia is destined to become one of
the chief producers of three of the most vital necessities of
mankind — e.g. f wheat, cotton, and oil. It is not too much
to say that if we can rise to our great opportunities we shall
be able to create a new Native State in Mesopotamia far
more populous, powerful and wealthy than Persia, Turkey,

37^ Britain's New Responsibilities

or Egypt. On the wisdom and foresight of our initial
political ideals and structures in Mesopotamia and
Palestine will depend not only the peace of the Near
and Middle East, but, what is far more important, the
future good or bad relations between Asiatics and
Europeans.

The spirit of nationalism is alive in Asia, and the history
of British India, and other countries where Great Britain
has been called upon to play a leading r6le, provides few
precedents or models upon which we can now work. It is,
therefore, essential that at the earliest possible moment a
new Civil Service should be formed, and a new department
set up in London for dealing with Mesopotamia and
Palestine.

The India Office and Government of India should relin-
quish their present hold over Mesopotamia, and the War
Office their control and direction in Palestine. Appoint-
ments in both countries will have to be most carefully
scrutinized, and the minister in London responsible for
making these appointments and giving general directions
as regards policy must be advised by men who have not
only personal knowledge of the two countries concerned,
but who have also that sympathy and insight which is
essential if the Mandatory conception of our task is to be
put into effect.

377

UNREST IN INDIA : THE QUESTION OF
THE KHALIFATE

By Colonel C. E. Yate, c.s.i., c.m.g., d.l., m p.

We have seen lately the report in the press of the claim to
the Khalifate advanced by the Emir Abdullah on the part
of the Malik of the Hedjaz. In considering this claim we
must not forget that the King-Emperor has more Muham-
madan subjects under his sway than any other ruler in the
world, and that this claim on the part of the Malik of
the Hedjaz to oust the Sultan of Turkey from the Khalifate
and to acquire the position and title for himself affects
Great Britain more than any other Power.

Now one of the things that particularly struck me at the
time when the Malik of the Hedjaz declared his indepen-
dence of Turkey was the silence, suspicion, and I may say
distrust, with which the announcement was received by
Muhammadans in India. I did not understand this at the
time, and I was inclined to think my Indian friends were
unduly suspicious of the Malik’s intentions, and that their
fears of personal aggrandizement on his part were unfounded ;
but I am compelled to acknowledge now that I was
wrong.

There are some sixty odd million Muhammadans in
India, of whom the vast majority are Sunnis, and so far as
my knowledge goes it is not the slightest use talking to
them as to whether the Sultan belongs to the tribe of the
Koreish or not, or whether he is legally entitled to the
Khalifate or otherwise. The fact remains that for the last
45° years the Sultan of Turkey has been their Khalif, and
in their eyes he is their Khalif, and so far as I know will
remain their Khalif.

Four years ago one of my Indian Muhammadan friends
wrote to me to say that “ real difficulty would arise if or

378 Unrest in India : the Question of the Khalifate

when the Sheriff chooses to declare himself the Khalifa and
Protector of the holy places at Mecca and Medina, 1 ' and he
added that no Sunni Muhammadan could 11 actively help or
even approve the Sheriffs action ” in doing so. That very
action has now been taken and my impression is that in
their opposition to it Indian Muhammadans will have the
sympathy of the Afghans of Afghanistan as well as of the
Muhammadans of Khiva, Bokhara and other parts of
Central Asia, and that if this claim is pressed by the
Malik of the Hedjaz it may lead to strife between him and
his Arab followers on the one side and the Muhammadan
residents of India and other parts of Asia on the other side,
and that the strife thus engendered may become a menace
to the peace of the British Empire.

So far as we know, the Malik of the Hedjaz is not even
primus inter pares amongst the Arabian chiefs. Shortly
after the declaration of his independence, he came to blows
with a neighbouring chieftain and was thoroughly defeated.
The same thing may happen again and his claim to
“ adequate temporal power ” may not be verified.

We have seen the Emir Feisul elected by an assembly
at Damascus as King of Syria, and the same assembly, it is
reported, went out of their way to nominate the Emir
Abdullah, the second son of the Malik of the Hedjaz, to be
King of Mesopotamia. So far as I have been able to
ascertain, there is not a single Arab tribe or a single Arab
chief in Mesopotamia who would acknowledge the overlord-
ship of any other tribe or chief in Mesopotamia, and all the
tribes and all the chiefs of Mesopotamia are, I believe,
equally strong in their determination not to acknowledge
the overlordship of any other outside tribe or chief, either
from the Hedjaz or anywhere else. The one thing they
hare asked for is that Mesopotamia should remain under
British guidance and control.

We have heard a good deal of late of the new birth of
the Arab nation, but considering the special position Great
Britain occupies as a great Muhammadan power, it behoves

Unrest in India : the Question of the Khahfate 379

us to consider well how the new birth of this nation is likely
to affect the British Empire. If it leads to religious strife
it will be a serious matter, and though the question of the
Khalifate is one to be decided solely by Mussulmans
themselves, one never knows where religious strife once
started may not lead to.

We desire, as one correspondent, I see, has put it, “ to
follow out to its ]ogical conclusion the p ohcy we adopted in
1915 of making the Arabs our friends,” and we desire equally
to retain the friendship and the confidence of the Indian
Muhammadans that resulted from our help to Turkey in
the Crimean War. Strife between the two would be most
unfortunate, and further strife between us and the Sultan
of Turkey would be equally unfortunate A telegram from
India the other day told us that the claim advanced by the
Emir Abdullah on the part of his father to the Khahfate
has now been followed by a movement in Afghanistan
m favour of acknowledging the Amir of Afghanistan as
Khalif, and what this will end in no one can say

Meanwhile, we see it reported in the Indian press that
the Amir, in a speech at Kabul on the anniversary of the
murder of his father, stated that “ the policy of Russia to-day
is one which is probably attracting all the Mussulmans to
it," and he offered a welcome to all Indian Muhammadans
who chose to migrate to Afghanistan , while at the same
time the head of the Afghan Deputation to India is reported
to have made a speech in the Juma Musjid at Mussoorie
stating that the Mission had been ordered by the Amir to
demand from the British Government that the question of
the Khalifate would in no way be placed in jeopardy or
interfered with.

The result of this has been the telegrams to the Viceroy
from Muhammadans at Delhi stating that “ it is impossible
for the faithful any longer to remain under British rule
peacefully," and a further telegram to the Afghan Mission
at Mussoorie stating that they “ appreciate most gratefully
the hospitality offered by His Majesty the Amir of Afghani-

380 Unrest in India : the Question of the Khalifate

stan to the Indian Mussulmans who intend to leave the
country.”

How many of these Indian Khalifat agitators will
really leave the country remains to be seen, but the unrest
caused by this agitation in India, added to the Bolshevist
activities in Afghanistan, Central Asia, Persia and the
Caucasus, as well as the attitude of the Arabs in their
attacks upon Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria, gives little
hope of quiet in the East.

What is going on in Russian Central Asia we have little
news of. The accounts we have of the Bolshevist occupa-
tion of Enzelli and Resht in Persia are far from reassuiing,
and should there be any further advance on their part there
is only one thing that we may be sure of, and that is that
we shall find the Government of Persia absolutely helpless
in the matter, despite all their high-sounding titles, and
that few if any of the Persian people will be willing to
sacrifice their lives in the defence of their own country.

How far the Bolshevist virus has penetrated into Afghani-
stan one cannot say. I notice that that fine soldier Major
Sir Umar Haiyat Khan, in the interview he gave to the
Morning Post the other day, stated it to be his opinion
that “ the Punjab disturbances and the measures taken to
repress them cannot be seen in their proper perspective
unless one is in possession of the full facts regarding the
relation between those seditious disturbances and the con-
spiracies from Bolshevist Russia, and from Kabul.” He
went on to say that the whole issue depended “ on the extent
of the peril in which British rule in India was at the time,
and on the fact that the local sedition was not isolated, but
was linked up with foreign plans of invasion.” The “ foreign
plans of invasion ” resulted in the Afghan invasion of India
in May last year, and it was the incredible weakness of the
Government of India in granting an armistice to the
Afghans, and spending two months in negotiations with
them in India after the defeat of their invasion, instead of
permitting the General in Command to dictate the terms

Unrest in India : the Question of the Kkalifate 381

of peace on Afghan soil at the time, that resulted in the
upheaval of the tribes on the frontier and the Waziristan
campaign that has not even yet been brought to a close.

Lately we have seen a fresh Afghan deputation received
in India, and the telegrams told us shortly afterwards that
the conference with these delegates had to be summarily
broken off owing to renewed occupation of Indian territory
by Afghan troops.

This conference is now said to have been resumed, and
the positions occupied by the Afghan troops on the British
side of the frontier are said to have been evacuated.
However, it looks very much as if the present deputation
has been sent simply to try to fool the Government of
India again this year in the same way as last year. On
that occasion they came after an attempted invasion of
India in collusion with revolutionaries in India, and now
again this year a somewhat similar attempt has apparently
been made ; and, as a recent telegram from India tells us,
“ feeling is reported especially acute at Delhi and in the
Punjab, where a violent agitation is in progress,” and “ the
Afghan delegates are visitors we could well do without at
this juncture.” Presumably, therefore, the motive of their
mission is subject to considerable doubt.

The agitation now being carried on in India by enemies
of the British Government playing upon the religious
susceptibilities of their Indian fellow-countrymen may be the
cause of untold misery and disaster to Muhammadans,
Hindoos and Christians alike, just as in the Mutiny of 1857.

Mr. Ikbal Ali Shah, himself an Afghan, in an article
entitled “ The Drifting of Central Asia " in the Near East
of April 29 last, concluded by writing: “Not long ago
Trotsky declared that only through India would England
be struck down. What, then, are the guardians of India
doing ? ”

The “ peril ” in India is just as great now as it was last
year, and well may the question be asked : " What are the
guardians of India doing ?”

382 Unrest in India: the Question of the KkalifcUe

The British Government has rightly been doing its best
to maintain the Sultan on his throne in Constantinople, but
the difficulties of the situation have been much enhanced
by the action of agitators, who, on the plea of the protection
of the Khalif, have been endeavouring to stir up revolution
in India, while at the same time they have been helping to
destroy the Sultanate by intrigues with the Young Turk
party under Enver Pasha and Mustapha Kemal. These
two leaders, by bringing Turkey into the war on the side of
Germany, have not only brought their country to its
present ruin, but have been fighting in rebellion against the
Sultan up to the present moment

The Hindu agitators, whose one aim and object
apparently is to embarrass, and if possible to destroy, British
government in India, have now for their own ends joined in
with the Muhammadans of the Khalifat agitation and are
egging them on in every way they can.

These Hindus are the same men who roused the town
mobs of I ndia to rebellion last year over the Rowlatt Acts.
Now they are making use of the Khalifat agitation, and with
the help of the religious question now added in, they are
apparently endeavouring to bring on the same state of affairs
again this year.

It may be asked: What are the Rowlatt Acts? In
consequence of the revolutionary crime that was prevalent
in India, the murder of the police, and the impossibility of
obtaining evidence for a trial in open court, various men
had to be interned in India during the war. A commission
was appointed consisting of an Indian Judge of the High
Court, an Indian civilian, a British Chief Justice in India,
and a British civilian, under the chairmanship of Mr.
Justice Rowlatt, who was sent out from England on purpose
to enquire into all these cases.

They did so and, if I remember right, decided that the
men interned had been rightly interned, and they advised
that legislation should be passed by the Government of
India giving power to intern men concerned in revolutionary

Unrest in India : the Question of the Khalifate 383

conspiracies after the temporary war legislation under the
Defence of India Act came to an end. This legislation
was duly passed by the Government of India, but un-
fortunately, owing to the weakness shown by the Government
against the clamour raised by the agitators, the Act was
made a temporary one for three years only. Despite this,
however, and the further concession by the Government
that the Act should only be put in operation in districts
where anarchical and revolutionary crimes were being per-
petrated, and would only come into operation on the Govern-
ment of India giving its sanction to an application for powers
under the Act made by the Local Government, the people
of the more or less educated class in the towns were led to
believe the false reports spread abroad about these Acts by
the members of the various Congress societies, culminating in
the rebellion of April last year. The Acts themselves came
to be known as the Rowlatt Acts, which are referred to so
often in the Hunter Committee’s report.

The same influences are still at work, and no one can
say what may or may not happen. Lately, however, the
telegrams have pointed to the increasing virulence of the
agitation, the agitators even going so far as to pass resolu-
tions demanding the postponement of the visit of the Prince
of Wales till Moslem demands are satisfied ; the prevention
of the enlistment of Indians in the Indian Army; and, finally,
that “ the day an adverse decision is passed by the Peace
Conference shall also be a day of complete independence
from British rule. 1 ’ “Complete independence” means
revolution. How far these revolutionists may succeed in
raising a fresh rebellion in India, or how far moderating
influences may be brought into effect, remains to be seen,
but the danger is there. So patent is it ttfall, that I cannot
do better than quote from a letter, which I have lying
before me now, written by one Indian in India to another
Indian in England, describing the situation as follows :

“ On your return you will find your country quite different
to what you left. The feeling against the Government is

384 Unrest in India : the Question of the Khalifate

going very high and officials are taking a very lenient view.
The Khalifat question has done much harm to the Govern-
ment, and it looks to me that revolution is at hand. It
might come at any time before this letter reaches you.”

A hundred years ago India was in much the same state
of chaos that Russia is in now. The Pax Britannica then
established by us in India has lasted to the present day,
with the exception of the Mutiny of 1857 and the rebellion
of 1919. The Mutiny of 1857 was a mutiny of the Indian
Army, which by being pampered had come to think itself
all powerful, and struck accordingly.

The rebellion of 1919 was the result of agitation got up
by the politically-minded educated people of the towns
belonging to the various societies referred to above, who
through being equally pampered began to think that they,
too, were all powerful, and similarly struck for that reason.
In both cases the ** placid contentment” of the rural
population, which we must remember comprises 226
millions out of the 244 millions residing in British India,
was comparatively little affected ; and to-day I am told that
outside a three-mile radius from any town the villagers are
just as placid and just as contented as ever. Unfortunately
the result of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms has been to
place these 226 millions of placid and contented villagers
under the thrall of the remaining 18 millions in the towns,
and this they hate extremely.

In the towns the case is very different. The rebellion
of 1919 has shown how easily town-bred mobs can be
excited in India ; what a large proportion of people they
contain ready for any disturbance. It has also been proved
how difficult it is to prevent the fidelity of the men
employed in railways, posts, and telegraphs, as well as in
industrial centres and even in the Indian Army itself, from
being exposed to the wiles of the agitators and the false
rumours so readily spread abroad by them.

Never was there a time when a strong Government in
India was more essential than at the present time.

3»5

THE STRATEGIC POSITION OF ARMENIA

By E. A. Brayley Hodgetts

Is it too much to hope that recent events in Asia Minor
may at last open the eyes of the British public and the
British Government to the strategic importance, from the
point of view of the British Empire, of what is usually
called Armenia ? The ancients were not blind to the value
of that country and to its strategic significance. The
Assyrians, Alexander the Great, the Medes and Persians,
all made Armenia their battle-ground.

Napoleon is supposed to have been the first of moderns
to have recognized the strategic value of Constantinople,
which he is reported to have regarded as the key to world
dominion, and in his day no doubt this was true. Constan-
tinople was the front door to the East before another
Napoleon had promoted the Suez Canal. With the com-
pletion of the Suez Canal the importance of Constantinople
was considerably discounted, for the direct highway to the
East now passes through Egypt. While the Suez Canal
provided Western Europe with a short cut to India which
left Constantinople out of account, the great Eastern Euro-
pean Empire of Russia was intent on obtaining back-door
access via Central Asia. Whatever views may be held
regarding the authenticity of the famous will of Peter the
Great, there can be no question concerning the advice of
Napoleon, who, with a view to annoying Great Britain and
to diverting the attention of Russia from Europe, inspired
Paul, and later Alexander I., with dreams of Asiatic
conquest.

That Russia had always cast covetous eyes on Persia is,
of course, an incontrovertible historical fact. As early as in
the reign of Ivan the Terrible the importance of Persia and

vol. xvi. 2 c

386 The Strategic Position of Armenia

the desirability of its conquest was recognized. Peter the
Great succeeded in converting the Caspian into a virtually
Russian lake. This policy was natural, defensible, and
even commendable, for Russia could not allow the mouth of
its largest river, its largest artery of traffic, to remain in the
hands of a foreign, not to say hostile, country. Already the
Volga was dotted, for a long distance up its course, with
colonies of Tartar Mahomedans, who might at any moment
be turned into the outposts of an invading enemy force.

But Russia’s natural growth, like that of all nations, was
not eastwards, but westwards. ’Tis westward that the tide of
empire rolls, and the Balkan States, the Slavonic races in-
habiting Austria, even the countries of Central Europe, were
much nearer and dearer to the heart of the Russian colossus
than distant trans-Himalayan India. George I. had seen this,
and regarded the sudden emergence of Russia with
apprehension, so did Frederick the Great, more wise in
this respect than his father, and so more particularly did
Napoleon redoubt her aggrandizement.

By Napoleon’s seductive arts Russia was tempted to cast
her eyes on India and thus to retard by at least a century, if
not to arrest for ever, her natural growth in the West.
Catherine the Great and Nicholas I. understood the true
destiny of Russia better than many of her statesmen and
soldiers in the more recent days of Alexander II., into
whose minds had sunk the seductive poison of ambition,
and who could not refrain from dreaming of the glory
which would be certain to accrue from Eastern conquests.
Hence the Central Asian Railway, with its base at Krasno-
vodsk, opposite Baku. In those days we used to read
with bated breath the sensational articles of the late Mr.
Charles Marvin and Mr. Dobson’s thrilling book on
" Russia’s Railway Advance into India.” Our withers
were wrung by the Penjdeh incident, and we shuddered at
the eloquence of the late M. Vambdry, that famous Hun-
garian publicist who predicted, stimulated no doubt by
German politicians, the downfall of the British Empire

The Strategic Position of Armenia 387

through the machinations of Russia. Then the kaleido-
scope changed. After the accession of Alexander III.
there came the rapprochement with our supposititious foe
and the building of the Baghdad Railway. Since then the
situation has altered once again, Russia — no longer governed
by an autocrat emperor — is governed by an autocratic
clique, who, under pretence of a proletariat republic, are
ruling the country with a rod of iron and incidentally
ruining it. Not content with impoverishing their own
country they are credited with dreams of world conquest.
They want to introduce the blessings of Bolshevism and of
government by Soviets and Commissars into primitive
Persia and “benighted” India, for they feel that to be
effective, their system must be universal. Besides Russia
being exhausted, they are naturally looking for “green fields
and pastures new.” In these laudable ambitions they are
whole-heartedly abetted by a certain section of the German
reactionaries, who, as General Ludendorff has cynically
admitted, deliberately promoted Bolshevism in order to
undermine one of their most formidable enemies. Behind
the tyrannous regime of the pseudo-proproletarian Soviet
Government there stand the reactionary forces of Kultur,
luring to destruction a people whom they ultimately intend to
conquer and use as an instrument for the gratification of
their lust of empire and their insane hatred of Great
Britain.

In the meantime what are we doing to prepare for this
growing menace to our empire? We have spent untold
blood and treasure in conquering Mesopotamia, and have
created what has been happily described as the Muddle East.
The once prosperous land of the Arabian Nights is in a
ferment If H arun-al- Raschid were to come to life to-day
he would rub his eyes in mute amazement at the altered
condition of his beloved Baghdad.

Of course Lord Denbigh performed a great public service
in going about the country teaching the British public geo-
graphy, and explaining the true meaning of the Baghdad

3 88 The Strategic Position of Armenia

Railway, but can our statesmen be credited with vision
when after risking the fate of the Indian Empire by sending
General Townsend with an inadequate force to capture
Mosul, they allowed the back-door to our great Asiatic
possessions to remain open ?

After the collapse of Turkey and when the Black Sea
was thrown open to us, we neglected to get astride of the
Transcaucasian Railway, which runs from Batoum to
Baku, and commands the Caspian and through it Central
Asia and Persia, and yet we nevertheless entered into an
agreement with the latter country which made its protection
from aggression imperative to our prestige.

We could not plead ignorance of Bolshevik designs, these
had indeed been proclaimed from the house-tops. Our
papers were full of stories of the Pan-Turanian movement
and of Pan-Islamism. Bolshevik agents were known to be
busy in Bokhara and Afghanistan. We were told of a great
revival of religious fanaticism among the Tartars of the
Volga, and in the face of that what did we do ? We created
the Tartar republic of Azerbaijan, gave it the custody of
the oil-fields of Baku, and commanded the heroic Armenian
General Andranik to stay his hand and to desist from
defeating the enemies who were threatening to give the
coup de grdce to his martyred country.

It was because of the oil fields of Persia, we are told, that
we embarked on our Baghdad adventure, and yet we have
entrusted the still more important oil-fields of Baku to a
Tartar republic, which on the first opportunity made
common cause with the Soviet Government of Russia, and
is now extending the hand of friendship to our recent
enemies the Turks, with the object of finally exterminating
with their assistance, what remains of our fellow- Christians,
the Armenians, who so valorously fought on the side of the
Allies during the Great War,

In our anxiety to propitiate our Mahomedan fellow-
subjects we have stood aside and shed crocodile tears while
Christian Armenians were being massacred. It is un-

3*9

The Strategic Position of Armenia

necessary to possess a knowledge of the Oriental mind to
understand that such an attitude is not calculated to raise us
in the estimation of the Indian people.

In the old days of early-Victorian diplomacy we regarded
the Turks as our friends, and we even embarked on
a fruitless and costly war to save them from destruction.
In the Crimea we sealed with our blood our friendship for
the “ unspeakable Turk,” but in not quite half a century
later Lord Salisbury opined that we had backed the wrong
horse, and in less than a generation after that historic
admission, the Turks joined our enemies in a peculiarly
odious and treacherous manner. No doubt they now
deeply regret their betrayal ; they tried to stab us in the
back, but we turned round and smote them. And now we
are assisting their co-religionists, the Tartars of an artificial
Azerbaijan — the real Azerbaijan is part of Persia — to
organize themselves into a powerful State in order to be
able to stretch out their hands to the Ottoman hordes, and
to exterminate the hated intervening Armenian Christians.

The descent by the Bolsheviks on Enzeli, from which
we have been obliged to retire, is one of the firstfruits of
this strange inconsequential policy.

When will the eyes of our leaders and statesmen be
opened to the true situation ?

To imagine that we can ever hope to restore the old
friendly relations between this country and Turkey is as
fallacious and visionary as to believe that we can ensure
the respect of the Mahomedans of India by forsaking our
friends in Persia and Armenia.

Let us glance for one moment at the strategic position in
this part of the world.

Constantinople guards the entrance to the Black Sea,
but is for the future to be an open door.

On the south-eastern shore of the Black Sea is the port
of Batoum, which is connected by railway with Tiflis and
from thence with Baku.

From Tiflis there is railway communication with Erivan

390 The Strategic Position of Armenia

and Kars, which latter important place is within easy reach
of Erzeroum, for, thanks to the war, a motor road has been
made between these two towns. Erzeroum has been called
the Clapham Junction of Asiatic Turkey, for here the
great caravan routes leading to Persia and Afghanistan
from the Levant and the Black Sea converge. There is
also a railway from Tiflis to Julfa and Tabriz.

Hence through Batoum and Tiflis, Northern Asia Minor
can be dominated.

We have seen that the Transcaucasian Railway runs
from Batoum in the Black Sea to Baku in the Caspian, and
we have experienced how easy it is to dominate Enzeli
and Resht, and consequently Persia (for Teheran is within
comparatively easy reach of Resht), from that port. But
opposite Baku, on the eastern shore of the Caspian, is
Krasnovodsk, the starting-point of the Central Asian
Railway, which runs in a straight line to Dushak, less than
ioo miles from Meshed on the Persian frontier. It then
turns off sharp to Merv, goes still farther north to Bokhara,
and proceeds via Samarkand and Kokan to Andijan in
Ferghana. Before reaching Bokhara it crosses the Amu
Daria at Charjui.

All these means of communication are to-day controlled
by the Russian Soviet Government and their Mahomedan
friends the Turks and Tartars, all but Batoum, where, in
response to urgent representations made to the British
Government last August, the small British garrison has not
been withdrawn. Batoum has been declared to be part of
Georgia, and the small Georgian Republic is reported to
be friendly to us.

The position of the Allies may be briefly described in
the following few words. As long as Constantinople
remains an open port our fleet can dominate the Black Sea
and support our garrison at Batoum. But if we wish to
succour Persia or protect the Caucasian oil-fields, we must
either capture the Transcaucasian Railway or follow the
route of the ill-fated Dunsterville force from Baghdad to

The Strategic Position of Armenia 391

Karmanshah and then across to Resht, a long and tedious
march through an inhospitable country.

We hold Cyprus, which is opposite the starting-point of
the Baghdad Railway, but this is a long way from the
Caucasus, from whence, as we have seen, runs the road to
the back-door to India.

We cannot sleep comfortably in our beds unless we know
that the Transcaucasian Railway is in the hands of
friends. To-day it is dominated at Tifiis and Baku by a
Government concerning whose intentions towards us our
statesmen seem to have an open mind.

It may, of course, be urged that there is no such thing as
friendship in politics, and that we can only count as friendly
those countries whose interests are not divergent from, or
opposed to, our own. Sentiment in politics is as dangerous
as it is in business, although there is nevertheless a great
deal of sentiment in both.

But the position in Asia Minor is not really so difficult
and perplexing as some people would make it appear.

Until the other day Asia Minor was virtually dominated
by an alien conquering nation, the Ottoman race, of whom
we tried to make friends, and who treacherously made
common cause with our enemies. To endeavour to make
friends of them again may be sentimental, but it is sentiment
of the wrong kind, and it is not business.

Besides the Ottoman Turk, there is only one other race
inhabiting Northern Asia Minor which can claim our
serious attention, and that is the Armenian. Of course we
have been told that the Armenians are even more untrust-
worthy and treacherous than the Turks. But what race of
men can be truthfully described as invariably sincere and
unselfish ? In politics the essential factor is not so much
sincerity as community of interests. And the interests of
the Armenians are surely identical with our own.

The Armenians are probably the most ancient race
in that part of the world. The name Armenia first
occurs in a Persian cuneiform inscription of Darius

392 The Strategic Position of Armenia

Hystapsias (521-486 b.c.). Its origin is of so remote an
antiquity that it is in doubt The native name was Biania,
the original of the modern Van. The Armenians are an
Aryan race and claim to be descended from Haik, son
of Torgom, fifth in descent from Noah, whose ark is
supposed to have rested on Mount Ararat after the Flood.
They were the first Christians in that region, and they have
tenaciously retained their ancient faith in spite of many
trials and vicissitudes. A people by themselves, surrounded
on all sides by alien races, they were frequently invaded,
but generally defeated their enemies, and Tigran I., the
Great, conquered nearly the whole of Asia Minor.
Armenia continued an independent kingdom until 1365,
when her last king, Leo VI., was obliged to flee the
country, and journeyed to Paris and London seeking
assistance against the Mameluke invaders. U nder Ottoman
rule it is not too much to say that the Armenians were the
only economic asset of the country. The Turks were “ the
gentlemen work was foreign to their dignified nature.
The agriculturists, the cattle-breeders, the craftsmen, were
Armenians, so also were the labourers in the big cities, as
well as the merchants and traders. Not so nimble-witted,
nor so highly cultured, as the Greeks, they nevertheless
ran them very close. But they were less supple, less
pliable, less diplomatic than the Greeks. Very independent
in character, even somewhat truculent, conservative in
their habits and customs, they were proud of their ancient
traditions, of their somewhat primitive but genuine culture,
of their language, their literature, their achievements and
their faith. They refused to relinquish any one of their
national characteristics, and resisted assimilation whether by
the Turks or the Russians. To do them justice, the Turks
never showed much fanaticism in this direction ; they were
in the main content to live on the fruits of the labour
of subject races, until their slow-working and not over-
imaginative brains were worked upon by other, external
influences to suspect the loyalty of the conquered. Their

393

The Strategic Position of Armenia

vengeful suspicions once aroused, they proceeded in their
clumsy way to crush out the spirit of rebellion and to
massacre the native population. It was by these Oriental
methods that the Turks lost their European provinces one
by one throughout the nineteenth century. But the
Armenians were less subtle and less fortunate than the
Greeks and the Slavs or even the Egyptian fellaheen.

The Armenian traditions were older than those of the
Slavs, and the Armenians were as much a thorn in the
flesh of Russia as they were a cause of anxiety to Germany.
For Prussia’s dreams of world conquest were not of yester-
day's date. The great Elector’s argosies sailed to the Cape
of Good Hope in the seventeenth century, and two hundred
years later Frederick William IV. toyed with the idea of
becoming the protector of Jerusalem.

The Armenians had no friends, but they had many
enemies, and so they were continually massacred in the
hope that they might be completely exterminated. But
their vitality is such that they are able to form an inde-
pendent State to-day, and would, if but intelligently
supported, constitute an ideal bulwark of liberty in the
Near East.

Their cause has not always been pleaded in the happiest
manner. Too often have they been represented as poor,
mean-spirited, defenceless sheep, when they have, as a
matter of fact, fought like lions. Nor have they been
overscrupulous in their methods of reprisal. Not always
have they gently waited to be massacred ; more often they
have even anticipated the attack, and in some cases,
instead of being the massacred, it is they who have fallen
upon and slaughtered those whom they had reason to regard
as their enemies.

They are a rugged, stern, but remarkably intelligent
and industrious race ; they inhabit a rich country which, if
opened out, would benefit civilization ; and they are the
natural and traditional guardians of the Caucasus. Instead
of encouraging and assisting them to fulfil their mission, we

394

The Strategic Position of Armenia

have adopted every conceivable measure calculated to
disgust them with us, and we have handed the key to the
back-door to India to a newly created republic consisting of
their hereditary enemies, and united by ties of religion and
blood to the people who have so treacherously betrayed us.
Truly the existence of the British Empire is a perpetual
miracle.

[This article was written and received before the
Bolshevik forces made a decent on Engeli, and conse-
quently before the present complications in Persia had
arisen.]

395

PROCEEDINGS OF THE EAST
INDIA ASSOCIATION

THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
OF INDIA

By Nagendra Nath Sen Gupta

Whatever may be the principal industry in any individual
country, it is beyond controversy that agriculture forms the
backbone of human existence throughout the world. This
remark applies with peculiar force to India. Agriculture
was the chief industry when the Aryans finally settled down
in the country ; it has maintained its position throughout
the struggles of the various powers that overran India
before the Moslem rule of the seventeenth century. And
its supremacy is unchallenged even to-day when the
country is under the influence of the West, which has
always excelled the East in n on -agri cultured industries.
Now the question is whether at any stage of the
economic development of India we shall find it necessary
to subordinate agriculture to some other industry. Such
an end may well be considered impossible. The country’s
resources in coal, iron, and mineral oils — the three funda-
mentals of our modern conception of non-agricultural
industries — are still in process of discovery ; but even when
they are fully developed the position of agriculture need
not be touched. Our best investment will always be the
land. This is the essential point to be borne in mind,
even while we are considering how all industries can be
made to serve one another.

This fact as to the importance of agriculture does not
get sufficient recognition in India itself; but behind this
lies the bigger difficulty of the country’s very real illiteracy.
During the last three hundred years we have fallen so far
behind Western nations in the material and intellectual

396 The Agricultural Development of India

race that we might almost seem to have given up the race
altogether and settled down to a state of stolid passivity
which is dangerous alike to the material, intellectual, and
spiritual existence of any nation. I believe that it is true
to state that, bar the handful of people represented by the
“ educated classes” in each province, the masses of India
are practically where they were in the seventh century.
Time has progressed, but we have not progressed with
time. We have a stupendous task before us, and that is
to make up for our long-continued stagnation, and to
catch up the progressive nations of the world who have
been running while we have been sleeping. This material
regeneration of the country will largely depend upon the
successful development of agriculture, which will only
be possible when there is a popular understanding of its
urgency. But what will make the people understand it ?
The answer consists of one word : Education. We have
not only to educate those whom we call illiterate : we have
also to revise our system of higher education — the main-
spring of the thinking element of the nation. In a country
where the students appearing for the Matriculation
examination at any one university in any one year
may yet be counted by their ten-thousands, it is a lament-
able fact that very few of them have ever been encouraged
to give any thought to the land. Ask an ordinary uni-
versity student in India what his ideas are with regard
to the agricultural development of the country, and it
is almost certain that he will inform you that the problems
of the land do not interest him. He will perhaps be able
to give you more information than you would care to
possess on such matters as sports, university degrees,
comfortable posts, and he will even be ready to carry on a
conversation on such high-flown topics as self-government,
international politics, mind and matter, life after death, and
so on and so forth. His ideas on these subjects are in
most cases not the result of his own thinking : one might
almost say that his action is analogous to that of a talking

The Agricultural Development of India 397

machine. If he thought at all, he would interest himself in
less high-sounding but more useful subjects — subjects that
affected the immediate and fundamental needs of his country.
And what need is more immediate and fundamental than
the development of agriculture in India, with the one
exception of universal education ?

Some radical changes in the system of land tenure,
as obtaining in our country at the present time, will be
necessary for the line of agricultural development which I
shall suggest in course of the paper. Without the neces-
sary education of the masses, such changes may naturally
be viewed with apprehension by a very large section of the
population. Since our object is to introduce changes not
in the teeth of popular opposition, but, if possible, with
public opinion behind us, it is very necessary that we
should set to work at once to prepare the popular mind for
our purpose by giving the masses an adequate measure
of education.

First, then, we must set to work to change the present
illiterate, poverty-stricken ryot into a modern agriculturist.
But how is this to be done? It will take more than a
century if our work is to be along the lines of gradual
evolution — educating the generations yet unborn. And in
my impatience I have conceived what I hope may prove a
short cut. Having regard to my ignorance of the technique
of Indian tenures, I feel that I can but state my idea and
leave it to be developed or rejected by those better quali-
fied to judge. Shortly stated, then, my idea is this : that
we find some way of dealing with the land tenures which
will turn the small holdings into farms of the size of an
average English farm ; that these should be worked by men
of superior education as farmers (the zemindar himself
turning a farmer where possible ) ; and that the ryot of
to-day should be employed as a farm servant. The point
is that, apart from getting results in a reasonable time, for
due agricultural development we want not only education
up to a certain standard, but the finance and initiative

39$ 7 ^ Agricultural Development of India

which the present ryot cannot supply. And it is the ryot
himself who in the long run will reap the chief benefit from
any changes which we may be compelled to make.

Statistics of a few years ago show that 196,000,000 out
of 330,000,000 inhabitants of India, i.e . — nearly two- thirds
of the entire population — are directly dependent upon agri-
culture, while nine-tenths of the rural population derive
their living directly and indirectly from agriculture. The
size of an average holding varies from half an acre in
densely populated parts of the country to eight acres in
less congested parts. Taking the mean of the two
extremes, the average size of the Indian farm — if one may
call it by that name — does not exceed four acres. As the
holder of this four-acre -farm supplies both capital and
labour, the usual custom is for the whole family to find
their vacation in, and derive their living from, the manage-
ment of the holding. Suppose that each family contains at
least three male adults fit for employment on the land, it is
obvious that one man is responsible for the cultivation of
something like 1 '3 acres of land only, which is a colossal
waste of labour in view of the fact that in the progressive
countries of the world — especially in England — there is on
the average only one man allowed for every fifty acres of
mixed husbandry land, the yield of which on the other
hand is, as a rule, greater than that of the same area in
India. Roughly speaking, from the production point of
view one man in England is doing the same amount of
work as fifty in India. At this stage let us ask ourselves
this important question : Why is it that fifty men are doing
no more work in our country than one in England ? The
answer falls under three main heads :

(1) The ridiculously small size of farms.

(2) The absence of labour-saving implements.

(3) The low efficiency of labour.

The low efficiency of labour can be accounted for (a) by
unfavourable climatic conditions over which we have little
control, ( 6 ) by the low standard of living as regards both

The Agricultural Development of India 399

feeding and housing, and (c) by the general ignorance as to
what should be considered a fair day's work both for man
and beast. It is no good quarrelling with the climate, so
we must put that aside. We can certainly do something
towards raising the standard of living. A general education
which will make the labourer realize what is considered
a decent standard of living in the twentieth century will
help the matter considerably ; but he cannot better his style
of living on his present income. And since his income
depends on the profits of the land, it is obvious that the
land must be made to yield more. But this increased yield
can only be secured by entrusting the land to those who
know something about the scientific management of land,
and who possess the capital which will enable them to
translate their ideas of improved farming into actual
performance.

The third cause of the low efficiency of labour is the
absence of any recognized standard of labour. I do not
know whether any tests have actually been made in order
to discover how much work on the land can reasonably be
expected from a normal adult working under the climatic
and other conditions prevailing in India ; but such tests
should be easily made. With the necessary data of labour,
an enlightened farmer bent upon getting his money’s worth
of work, and wise enough to enforce regular hours, will
have little difficulty in greatly augmenting the efficiency of
labour.

Let us now consider the question of the absence of
labour-saving implements insofar as it is responsible for
the enormous waste of human labour to which we have
referred. The cheapness of labour on the one hand, and
the financial inability of the farmer to purchase anything
more elaborate than a primitive wooden plough made by
the village carpenter on the other have so far been the
chief obstacles in the way of introducing those modern
implements which can be employed with advantage under
Indian conditions. The cost of labour will increase in

400 The Agricultural Development of India

proportion to the increase of wealth in the country, and
hence the economic development of India wiH gradually
remove the first obstacle. With the fulfilment of my dream
of the future agriculturist of India, the second obstacle will
also vanish.

Up to a certain point the acreage per labourer varies
almost inversely as the size of the farm. A fifty-acre- farm
will in all probability employ the same number of labourers
as a hundred-acre-one, provided that the system of fanning
remains the same in both cases ; whereas the produce on
the latter should not fall short of twice that on the former.
Thus we see that a man who is financially able to run a
hundred-acre-farm is in a much better position than another
who cannot afford to farm more than fifty ; because in the
former case there will be greater economy of labour, and
a consequent bigger profit on the capital, part of which
profit will be directed towards raising the standard of living
of the labourer by means of larger wages.

I hope that it is clear that the arguments put forward so
far favour the ejection of the simple, old-fashioned ryots
from the land as farmers, although not as farm-labourers.
This is decidedly a revolutionary proposal, and I am not
blind to the antagonism which it may arouse, since it
attacks the old system of land tenure altogether. But
if the ultimate interests of our country call for such change,
it seems to me that it would be our solemn duty to work
towards it. An ordinary ryot of the present day, who
lives from hand to mouth, and who more often than not is
completely in the grip of moneylenders, will find life
infinitely more pleasant and free from care as a well-paid
farm-labourer or a factory hand. Give the land, therefore,
to the people who are progressive in their ideas, and
consequently believe in that kind of farming which combines
science with practice ; who are enterprising and find in the
land an unlimited field for their enterprise ; and finally who
have the money and know how to invest it in the land— if,
indeed, we can find or create such a class.

The Agricultural Development of India 401

Our task hardly ends here. If the Hindu law of in-
heritance is allowed to continue in its present form, a few
generations will witness the undoing of what we may
accomplish to-day. The future legislators of the country
cannot do better than carefully consider this important
question.

The complete replacement of smallholders by large
farmers will necessarily have to be a slow business requiring
much patience and tact on the part of the Government ; and
the industrial development of the country will play no mean
part in the realization of the scheme. Something like
348,400,000 acres of land in India are fit for cultivation,
although not much more than 245,100,000 acres are under
actual cultivation at present. Supposing that we bring all
the cultivable land under cultivation as a result of our plans,
and that taking everything into consideration we allow an
acreage of twenty to every farm hand, we shall find
employment on the land for something like 17,000,000
men. It has been mentioned before that 196,000,000
people in India are dependent upon agriculture for their
living at the present time. Let us assume that to every
male adult there are on the average one female and three
children, and this means that, under the proposed scheme of
agricultural development, we shall be able to provide for
85,000,000 working-class people, or one-fourth of the entire
population, on the land. Now the question is, What is going
to happen to the remaining 1 r 1,000,000 people who are at
present maintained, though very precariously, by the land ?
If you turn them off the land you must find them some
means of livelihood elsewhere, otherwise you have no right
to alter the existing order of things. Of course, if you
are going to manufacture in the country all the modern
machinery needed by Indian agriculture, and if you make
provision for the utilization of the by-products of agriculture
— eg., hides, wool, etc. — you will be in a position to support
a large number of people on the strength of agriculture,
although not actually on the land. But this will not solve

vol. xvi. 2 D

402 The Agricultural Development of India

the whole problem, and the support of a large majority
of those people who will be thrown out of employment
will necessitate at least a corresponding development of
the urban and non-agricult ural industries of the country.
Large towns will have to spring up in districts comparatively
rich in minerals, especially coal and iron, the working
of which will supply a pleasant change of occupation for the
hundreds of thousands released from the land. The building
of a regular network of railways, and the construction of
better and more plentiful roads for facilities of communi-
cation and transport, will engage the services of a con-
siderable number of people ; while the building of a
mercantile fleet in proportion to the export and import needs
of the country, and the manning of the same, will play an
important part in the solution of the problem.

Having determined the fundamental settlement of the
land, we will now proceed to consider how to develop the
management of the land culturally and economically so
as to get both a maximum yield and a maximum profit.

The fencing off of the land is a thing almost unknown in
India, because under the present system the size and scope of
an average farm are so limited that it is hardly worth while
going to the trouble and expense of erecting and maintain-
ing fences. But the future agricultural development will
alter this state of affairs. We must define our fields and
meadows and make hedges and fences as sure an indication
of the condition of agriculture in India as they are in
England. Farming will be conducted on infinitely more
thorough and systematic lines. The existing systems of
rotation may need investigation. The keeping of live-
stock will become an essential factor of farming. These
new features will demand a carefully thought out division
of land into fields of approximately regular shape and
manageable size — fenced off from one another by hedges
or by wire and posts.

In the wake of extensive farming will follow the con-
struction of appropriate farm buildings, which will exercise a

Tkd Agricultural Development of India 403

profound influence on both sides of agriculture — crops and
livestock. The ultimate quality of crops grown depends
considerably on the manner of their storage, and hence
improved buildings will not only raise the selling value of
crops, but they will also help to increase the productivity of
the land by placing sound seed in the hands of farmers.
Again, when pastures become dry, and under adverse weather
conditions, it may be found necessary to feed fattening
bullocks in stalls or sheltered yards ; and hence, if we mean
to make large profits out of the keeping of livestock, we
must be prepared to house them comfortably. Further, there
should be adequate arrangements for the conservation and
management of both the solid and the liquid excreta of the
animals during the period they are fed inside the buildings.
Good, clean buildings constructed and fitted out on modern
lines are highly desirable where dairy-farming is to be
conducted ; but, of course, for our present and immediate
purposes, it will be sufficient if we insist on having such
buildings and dairy utensils as are absolutely indispens-
able for the milking of cows, the treatment of milk
prior to despatch, and the manufacture of milk-products.
We must not forget that we have to deal with a country
where agriculture has been, to all intents and purposes, at a
standstill for centuries, and consequently the development
must be gradual to be enduring.

We will now take up the question of soil fertility — a
subject which has engaged some of the finest brains of
Europe and America during the last eighty years. It will
be futile to expect the ryot to possess any real knowledge
on so highly technical a subject. Apart altogether from any
systematic knowledge of soil requirements, one’s common
sense ought to help one to appreciate the fact that one
must return to the land at least some of the ingredients
which have been removed from it in the form of crops ; or
else the initial productivity of the land cannot possibly be
kept up. But the practice of the ryot does not justify my
optimism in this respect. Perhaps his practice is regulated

404 The Agricultural Development of India

not by what he knows, but by what he can afford. It is a
well-known fact that if you start cultivating virgin soil and
systematically avoid manuring of any kind, after a certain
number of years the yield of your land will begin to
diminish and will continue to do so until a stage has been
reached where a natural equilibrium is established between
the income and the expenditure of the land, resulting in
what may be termed a constancy of yield which marks the
absolute minimum to be obtained from that land. It seems
to me very probable that in our Indian agriculture we are
mostly dealing with land which has been reduced from its
high initial fertility to the condition to which I have just
referred. Now the question is this : Are we going to be
content with our absolute minimum, or are we to use all
that modern agriculture suggests for the increase of our
natural-grown foodstuffs ? Of course we mean to take the
latter course. But we must be careful in our selection and
application of fertilizers. Unless the market conditions
are highly favourable it seldom pays to aim at securing
the maximum yield under the stimulation of chemical
fertilizers. “ The last bushel of corn costs far more
to produce than any other,” and hence, as our object is
increase based on economy, we shall exercise judgment in
determining the kind and the amount of manures to be
applied.

Scientific agriculturists recognize a broad distinction
between farmyard manure, which may be called the natural
manure, and chemical fertilizers, which by contrast may be
termed artificial manures. The value of farmyard manure
as a means of maintaining and increasing soil fertility was
discovered very early in the history of human civilization,
although its full significance was never understood until
recently when science came to be applied to agriculture.
Science has revealed its twofold value — chemical and
physical — one no less important than the other. The
magnitude of the part played by this apparently common
stuff may be gauged by the fact that its use is universal in

The Agricultural Development of India 405

British agriculture. One can hardly conceive of circum
stances which might disadvantageous^ modify its present
position

How much use are we making of this natural manure m
India ? I have no doubt that its use on land is not unknown
in our country, but we must admit that its use is un-
fortunately limited for at least three reasons

(1) The conception of agriculture in India which, as a

rule, does not include the keeping of livestock in
the scope of agriculture

(2) The use of dung as a fuel, especially by the poorer

people

(3) The use of dung as a disinfectant especially on

earth floors, even in the houses of comparatively
well-to-do and enlightened people

Not only is the gross output of this all important material
extremely low, but its availability to agriculture is a matter
of considerable uncertainty I am, however, full of hope
that the recognition of the systematic keeping of livestock
as a branch of agiculture will increase the production of
this material, and, once available, there is absolutely no doubt
of its general use on the land, especially if the future
agriculture of our country is entrusted to those who can and
are willing to farm on modern lines , while the working of
the natural resources of the country, a general education and
the raising of the standard of living of the masses, will
gradually render obsolete the uses of dung as a fuel and a
disinfectant

Although farmyard manure is a complete manure and its
use is indispensable to the future development of agriculture
in India, the use of artificial manures must also be introduced
if our object is a combined extensive and intensive
cultivation of the land The country must produce as much
of the artificial manures required by it as possible, and for
the rest we may have to seek outside But until, as a
result of the advancement of agriculture and the consequent

406 The Agricultural Development of India

increase of the national wealth, we find it economical to
import manures, we shall have to content ourselves with
what we can produce in the country. Sulphate of ammonia,
which is one of the most important nitrogenous manures,
can be obtained from such large cities as possess gas plants,
and, as a result of the future industrial development these
gas plants will be scattered broadcast over the country.
There is little doubt that as soon as the country is ready
to use artificial manures, sulphate of ammonia plants will
spring into existence as a matter of course ; since the owners
of gas factories will find in this by-product a considerable
source of income. If the gas factories are financed by
native capital or by capital which will not go out of India,
it is apparent that the use of sulphate of ammonia will put
money into the pockets of three sets of Indian people — the
manufacturers, the dealers, and the agriculturists ; and this
money is going to be produced by the land. Nitrate of
soda is also extensively used as a nitrogenous manure, but
the only deposits of any consequence so far discovered
are those in Chili. Nevertheless, in India we have
accumulations of nitrate of potash which, if used as a manure,
will be of almost unique value inasmuch as it embodies two
manurial ingredients — nitrogen and potash. Up till now,
the use of this material as a manure has been practically nil,
because of the great demand for it in the manufacture of
explosives ; but if the League of Nations prove to be a
success, the world’s need of explosives should gradually
diminish. Our nitrate of potash might not then find enough

foreign markets, and our national income will be reduced
unless we can find some other industrial use for this valuable
materiaL If it is not wanted anywhere else, agriculture
will accord it a most hearty welcome. Let us, therefore,
keep our eyes open, so that, if the opportunity arrives for
its economic use in Indian agriculture, we can let the
country of its origin profit by it first, and, if necessary,
solely.

The cheapest source of phosphatic manures at the present

The Agricultural Development of India 407

time is what is known as basic slag, which is a by-product
in the manufacture of steel from iron-ores containing
phosphorus by the basic Bessemer process. The Indian
agriculture of the future will find use for all the basic slag
capable of being produced in the country, and if we deem
it necessary to import any slag from foreign parts the
cheapness of the material will always favour such a step.
Besides basic slag we have at least two other sources of
phosphatic manure in the country — e.g. y rock phosphates and
bones, which may be used as they are or as superphosphates
by treatment with sulphuric acid. At present, almost the
entire bone output of the country, amounting to something
like 100,000 tons, is exported to countries where the material
is used both as a fertilizer and a decolorizer. With the
development of the country’s livestock under the aegis of
agriculture, there is no reason why our bone output should
not be multiplied by ten ; in that case it will certainly be to
our advantage to export any bones which may be in excess
of the requirement of the country.

Let us now consider the question of livestock as affecting
the agriculture of I ndia. The systematic rearing of such
economic beasts as cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs is a thing
almost unknown in India. We cannot attain the results
for which we look without development on these lines also.
The farmer must naturally be the most economic breeder
of livestock. The domestication of cattle, horses, and
sheep, and the recognition of their economic utility, took
place in India probably at an earlier date than in Western
countries, which are, however, at present, centuries ahead
of India in the matter of the development of livestock as
a result of careful selection and judicious crossing. The
extent to which we have neglected our livestock will
be made clear by the following figures, published within
recent years for livestock populations in British India and
in the United Kingdom :

408 The Agricultural Development of India

British India . United Kingdom.

Cattle ... 41,000,000 12,000,000

Horses . . . 1,600,000 2,000,000

Sheep ... ... 23,000,000 30,000,000

Pigs ... Indeterminate 4,200,000

The above figures speak deplorably for themselves when
compared with the relative size of the two countries. The
reason for our livestock deficiency is to be found in our
conservatism as to material progress, our lack of education,
and our religious scruples.

I have no doubt that the system of feeding of the Indian
population, as regards the proportions of nitrogenous and
non -nitrogenous foods, will change considerably with the
material progress of the nation ; but supposing, for the sake
of argument, that it does not change to such an extent as to
cause an appreciable increase in the consumption of meat of
all kinds, even then there will be little justification for
neglecting our livestock as we have done hitherto ; for,
besides being immeasurably benefited by the manurial
output resultant on the keeping of livestock on farms, we
shall always be able to find foreign markets for our produce
of meat, hides, and wool. An elaborate cold storage system
will be required for the preservation of meat, and the quality
of the meat will have to be such as to compare favourably
with the quality of the home-grown meat of those foreign
countries with which we have dealings. The raising of the
standard of living will go hand in hand with the economic
and educational development of the country, and, in con-
sequence the use of leather will extend so enormously in
our country that we shall be able to make economic use of
our entire production of hides.

Climatic conditions will, to a large extent, determine the
districts where the livestock farming will be distinctly
successful and profitable, but results of actual experiments
will be required to elucidate the question of the pre-eminent
suitability of certain species and breeds of livestock for
certain districts. The subject will have to be studied in all
its aspects — selection in breeding, serviceableness, and meat

The Agricultural Development of India 409

and millc producing capacity. Our first object will be
to ascertain how far the native breeds can be improved
without the introduction of foreign blood, and then we must
observe the adaptability to our climatic conditions of certain
well-known foreign breeds, notably English, and their
influence on the native breeds when crossed. I believe
that the shorthorn cattle and certain breeds of English
sheep have been successfully tried in India by individual
enterprise/out in future we shall have to conduct such trials
on a national scale and with national consciousness.

Whether or not horse-ploughing will successfully replace
bullock and buffalo ploughing in India still remains to be seen,
but it is not looking too far ahead to prognosticate that, apart
from agriculture, the industrial development of the country
will require the services of useful heavy horses for haulage
purposes. India is singularly deficient in native breeds of
heavy horses, and we must import and acclimatize them as
far as possible. Nature will do her work in selecting those
that will stand the climate best, and in course of time we
should be able to evolve certain suitable types the breeding
of which can be successfully conducted on the land.

I will close this paper by a reference to the educational
side of the agricultural development of India, since modern
agriculture is essentially a combination of science and
practice. Improvement can hardly be maintained in
practice without the illuminating help of scientific research.
The education of every farmer in the science of agriculture
is a standard which need not at present be seriously
considered ; but the training of men who will preach the
gospel of science to the cultivators of the soil is an urgent
necessity. We must have agricultural schools and colleges all
over the country — in far greater numbers than have hitherto
been possible. A large section of those who will come to such
institutions will certainly be farmers’ sons and prospective
farmers, and the success which attends their improved
methods of fanning will be an object-lesson to the untrained.
There are no trade secrets in agriculture. Methods of

410 The Agricultural Development of India

improvement are so obvious and carried out in such broad
daylight that good results obtained by one farmer can
be repeated by thousands of others if they have the sense
to adopt improved methods. Then we shall also have
to train those who will carry on propaganda and supervisory
work by means of agricultural literature ; by addressing
meetings of farmers at suitable centres ; by giving first-
hand advice after personal study of the conditions of any
particular farm ; and, if necessary, by enforcing better
farming with the authority of the Government. A con-
tinuous supply of Professors and teachers of agricultural
subjects and Research Fellows will also be needed. Although
a good many results of agricultural research are equally
applicable the world over, some research will have to
be repeated locally. In addition, there is an unlimited field
for original work.

The programme of agricultural education which I should
like to see in India would include farm schools to which
sons of farmers might pass from their village primary
schools. I consider such schools most important as
replacing for farmers any other type of secondary schools.

We have already a number of agricultural colleges in
India, many of which are independent institutes without
any university connection. There is absolutely no reason
for quarrelling with the existence of independent agri-
cultural colleges ; but every decent university ought to
possess an agricultural college or an agricultural depart-
ment. The University of Calcutta in my time had almost
no facilities for the study of agriculture. The reason is
not far to seek. The country as a whole is not even
aware that an agricultural education has a marketable
value. Those who come up to our universities have no
better ideas of it. To allow their sons to receive an
agricultural training is considered by 99*9 per cent, of Indian
parents to be nothing short of educational suicide. I need
hardly say that my remarks are made from personal
experience We have, however, one consolation in the

The Agricultural Development of India 41 1

matter and that is that “ the best is yet to be.” Our eyes
are turned to the future, which, let us hope, holds better
things for us than the present. Progress of any kind
depends on the education of the masses and on the right
kind of education for those standing above the masses.
Provide for the two, and your progressive ideas will attain
fruition automatically. In the train of hundreds of other
things will arrive a national consciousness of the necessity
and importance of university education in agriculture,
which will make it worth the while of every university in
the country to possess an agricultural department which
will hold its own amongst the agricultural departments of
all notable universities of the world.

Example is far more convincing than precept, and
hence the teaching in agricultural schools and colleges
must be supplemented by management of experimental
farms where scientific truths can be presented in a
concrete form, and thus win the confidence of farmers.
The aim of such experimental farms will be to find
out reliable data of economic manuring and cropping ;
animal nutrition and breeding, etc., without reference
to monetary considerations on these farms themselves.
The national money thus spent will be realized a
thousandfold in numberless farms all over the country.
The influence of the results of Rothamsted, Woburn,
Cockle Park, and other experimental stations of England
on the British and foreign agriculture is inestimable. The
same will have to take place in India. Every agricultural
college will have to possess an experimental farm and, in
addition, independent stations must be established and
maintained at the expense of the Government or by public
charity. The greatest publicity must be given to the
results obtained on these farms, so that there may be no
excuse for any farmer to follow unsound or inferior methods
of farming.

The need for agricultural research — chemical, bacterio-
logical, mycological, phytogenetical, etc. — is very urgent

412 The Agricultural Development of India

indeed in a country like India, where the number of
problems awaiting solution must be practically without
limit At the present time India possesses only one Agri-
cultural Research Institute of any consequence — namely, the
one at Pusa — and let us not shrink from recalling the fact
that the foundation of this one place was made possible by
the munificence of an American millionaire. It is to be
hoped that Indian philanthropists will be induced to
consider agriculture as an object of endowment after the
manner of that eminent Indian scientist — Sir J. C. Bose —
who lately endowed a Research Institute for pure science.

DISCUSSION ON THE FOREGOING PAPER

At a meeting of the East India Association, held at 3, Victoria Street,
S A\ , on Monday, March 15, 1920 a paper was read by Nagendra Nath
Sen Gupta, Esq , entitled “ The Agricultural Development of India
Professor W R Dunstan, cmg,ma, lld,frs, occupied the chair,
and the following ladies and gentlemen amongst others, were present
Sir Robert WarTand Carlyle, kcsi, cie, Sir Frank C Gates, kcie,
c s 1 , Sir William Ovens Clark, Lady Kensington, Lady Katharine Stuart,
The Hon Charles Patrick Stuart Mr G O W Dunn, Mr N C Sen,
on, Mr Sydney G Roberts, Mr I W Thakur, Mr N M Allorge,
Miss P R Scatcherd, Mr F H Brown, Frofessor Bickerton, Miss Berry,
Colonel F S Terry, The Rev Dr R H Durham, Mr and Mrs H R
Cook, Miss Hillyer, Mr P Varkki Isaac, Mr Ramachandra Bapurao
Kharadkar, Lieutenant Colonel G V Holmes, Dr S S Kapadia, Mr E
H Tabak, Miss E J Beck Mr P Newell, Miss Beadon, and Mr
Stanley P Rice, Hon Secretary

The Chairman Ladies and gentlemen, 1 have much pleasure in
introducing to you Mr Sen Gupta, who is to read the Paper this afternoon
As most of you are aware, Mr Sen Gupta is a distinguished young Indian,
who has for some time been studying, in this country, the applications of
science to agriculture He now holds a Research Scholarship, which has
enabled him to work at our leading agricultural experimental station at
Rothamsted I think that this will commend him to you as one who can
speak with some knowledge and authority on this subject

I am sure that, for several reasons, the East India Association will
welcome this Paper, coming, as it does, from one who has been studying
the advances we have made on this side in agriculture, with a view to
ameliorating the position of agriculture in his own country

I have now much pleasure in calling upon Mr Gupta to read his paper

Mr Nagendra Nath Sen Gupta then read a Paper on the “ Agn
cultural Development of India '

The Chairman Ladies and gentlemen, I think that you will agree that
we have listened to a most interesting and inspiring paper We cannot
help admiring the boldness with which Mr Sen Gupta has handled some
of the very difficult and complicated questions which this subject of Indian
agriculture involves For myself, I need only say that for many years I
have been deeply interested in Indian agriculture I have had some

414 The Agricultural Development of India

opportunities of studying it on the spot, and I have been very much con
cerned in this country with the question of the best method of utilizing the
products of that agriculture

India is on the verge of a political development in which Indians will
have a much deeper interest, and far more control, in the agriculture of
their country We must all welcome the procedure that Mr. Sen Gupta
has himself followed in coming here to study our methods, and our
advances m agriculture, with a view to leading similar advances in his own
country

With much that he said in the Paper I am in very cordial agreement,
especially with regard to what was said about education It is an
unfortunate fact that, not only in India, but in most Eastern countries,
agriculture is looked down upon, and is not regarded as a fit occupation
for an educated man I have made many unsuccessful attempts myself
to induce young Indians and young Singhalese to engage in agriculture,
both on this side and in their own country, and I have nearly always met
with the argument “The proper subject for us to work at, the subject
which is going to bring us most prestige, and, incidentally, most money, is
the law, and it is only right, therefore, that we should, when we come to
this country, pay attention to the law Argument is useless, and I have
come to the conclusion that there is only one remedy As Mr. Gupta
pointed out, it is, unfortunately, a very long one in obtaining results and
that is education But there are certain advances that might be made
with advantage, gaming experience from other countnes One is that
India should not merely have agricultural colleges, and agricultural
teaching m the universities, and agricultural research stations, and
agricultural scientific work, but that agriculture should be started at the
very beginning, and elementary agriculture simply taught in rural schools
I have been much interested in the progress that has been made already
in Ceylon, which has been attended with really remarkable results in a
comparatively short time The children are taught what we call over here
tf Nature Study ' They are made to take an interest in the soil and the
cultivation of the soil, and, above all, each is responsible, in his or her
school, for a small garden That, I think, is very important as the first
step in the attempt to interest the coming generation in agricultural
pursuits

Then we have the possibility of this education, this interest, once
started, being followed up in agricultural colleges, and in universities.
But what I think is equally important at the other end is that the
Universities of India should grant Degrees, not merely in Arts, and in
Law, and in Science, but also m Agriculture, as a special subject, on the
same intellectual level as others I think that this is not the case at
present I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting any Indian Doctor
of Agriculture I feel sure that agricultural education at the end, in the
universities, is quite as important as the first teaching in the elementary
schools What India wants is a number of well educated agriculturists
who can lead progress in the country itself

The Agricultural Development of India 415

Now I come to the main point in Mr. Gupta's Paper Here I am on
much less certain ground, and I am sure that there are several present
here to-day who are much better able to express an opinion on it than
I am The mam point of Mr Gupta’s Paper is that there ought to be a
radical change in the land tenure system in India, that there ought to be
a change from small holdings to large holdings, that the ryot should be
encouraged rather to become an agricultural labourer than an agricultural
proprietor on a small scale, as he is at the present time Of course that
interests us who live in this country very much, because we are trying to
do exactly the opposite We are convinced that large holdings are a
mistake, and many of us are in favour of a multiplication of small
holdings. I do not wish to use that as an argument against the contention
in Mr Gupta’s Paper. On the contrary, the conditions m India are
wholly different from those in this country In India you have the rjot, as
a rule, uneducated, unenterprising, lacking the knowledge and initiative
which are necessary to make even a small holding a success He is not
in a position to assimilate or to make use of the agricultural teaching, and
the results of agricultural investigation in India to which Mr Gupta has
alluded in his Paper While it may very well be that, from our point
of view, small holdings are the better plan, in India it may be desirable, as
Mr Gupta contends, that holdings should be on a larger scale

We all agree that agricultural production m India is exceedingly low, and
ought to be far greater But how is it to be made greater ? Mr Gupta
suggests that Government action is called for on the subject of land tenure
I have very grave doubts as to whether any Government could possibly now
(and certainly not in the future) carry out any such change as Mr Gupta
contemplates I cannot believe that any modem Government could take
action to dispossess the ryot of his holding of land, and compel him to be
an agricultural labourer It seems to me, however, that this is no reason
why the movement should not be advanced, if it is a sound movement,
from quite another direction If it is to be advanced, it appears to me it
can only be advanced in one way, and that is by voluntary action , by the
combination of capitalist and worker on a profit sharing basis Whether
that is feasible m India is a matter for discussion, and I hope that
something will be said on that point this afternoon A co operative move
meut must be well led, and led by men of sound education, who know
*hat they are talking about from the agricultural point of view The plan
that Mr. Gupta himself has followed is one which might well be general in
India, assisted by the Universities I mean the plan of enabling a man
who has attained a competent knowledge of agriculture m India to go
abroad for a certain number of years to study the advances made m other
countries. I feel quite sure that Mr Gupta would tell you himself that he has
derived enormous benefit from the studies he has made in this country,
and from the contact he has had with other minds who are thinking
of agricultural progress from a different point of view to that which obtains
in India.

Miss Scatcherd read the following letter from Dr Pollen

4 1(5 The Agricultural Development of India

March it, 1930.

My Dear Miss Scatcherd,

If you are speaking on Mr Gupta’s thoughtful and suggestive paper re
“ The Agricultural Development of India,” perhaps you might voice these
few remarks of mine thereon

Mr. Gupta is right m commenting on the lamentable fact that in India,
where tens of thousands of students are annually appearing for Matncula
tion, few, if any, have ever been encouraged to give any thought to the land
We certainly have in this particular made a mess of our syBtem — or no
system — of education in the land of Ind

But I do not think Mr Gupta’s idea of turning Indian small holdings
into farms of the size of an average English farm, and “ that the ryot of
to-day should be employed as a farm sen ant ” at all a good one for India
England used to be a land of small holdings when the interests of the many
were in the land. It is now a land of large holdings out of which a few
alone secure profit, and the old farming classes have been herded or
hounded into the cities We are trying to reverse this process now m the
best interests of the people, and the cry is now “ Back to the Land and
(as has been well said) “ we ought to make it possible for the energetic
countryman — the man with brains and character — to secure for himself a
small holding into which he may put all his energy, and out of which he
may hope to get something better than the wages of an ordinary labourer ”

The movement from the land to the towns was arrested in Lincolnshire
and Norfolk by the creation of small holdings, with the aid of the County
Councils, and before the war, Sir Rider Haggard reported that in the
neighbourhood of Epwood there were “ twenty three men now farming five
to 120 acres, each of whom had begun life as a labourer ” In Denmark
(the land that sends us so much of the butter we ought to make for our
selves) five-sixths of the land is held by small freeholders and peasants who
are state tenants, and in Denmark, in consequence of favourable land
legislation, for the last sixty years there has been a steady exodus from the
towns to the country , the very thing we want to secure in Great Britain
Every effort should be made in India to keep the plough in the hands of
the owners, and not in those of mere hirelings or money lenders, and the
best way to ensure this is to keep the land itself free for the freeman’s own
farming Here in England, owing to our hide bound “superior landlord
lawyer made law,” the land has been tied and bound by selfish legislation
and stinted in its productiveness May India escape this fate and be saved
from Levites, Lawyers, and Land grabbers is the hope of,

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) J Pollen.

She said that she was sure that those present would rather hear what so
great an authority on the matter as Dr John Pollen had to say, than any
thing that she had to say.

Mr. Thakur said that ever since the time of Lord Curzon the statement
had been made, not by irresponsible people, but by men holding
responsible positions, that the land in India was over-taxed It was not

The Agricultural Development of India 417

postible to separate the question of the agriculture of India from the
question of the existing land revenue which was taken by the Government
The amount of that land revenue would never decrease unless the
Government thought of retrenchment

A point which had been repeatedly urged was the development of
irrigation The superfluous water of the mighty rivers of India should be
turned to some use by the carrying out of schemes of irrigation
The Author had spoken of agricultural industries but he had omitted to
mention one thing— namely, that, in the past, Indian agriculturists worked
at other industries apart from agricultural industries, for example such
industries as hand loom weaving Those industnes must not be left out
of consideration

With regard to education, his view was that the best way in which to
proceed was to introduce agricultural education in place of the existing
secondary education At the present time students m India were being
taught German, and French, and so on He thought that it would be
better if the teaching of agriculture was substituted for the teaching of
those languages

At present many educated people, not only ordinary agitators but men
of high standing, suspected that the Government was jealous of the spread
of education, especially higher education, in India. That feeling would be
removed if agricultural education was introduced along with secondary
education It was quite possible so to introduce it If a change was
made, and certain subjects were taught in the vernacular, much of the
time in the time table could be devoted to the subject
There was one matter upon which the Author ought to have touched —
namely, that of the cow Many people m England thought that the
veneration in which the cow was held in India was due to superstition ,
but he wished to point out that the cow had an economic value Senti
ment which led to the preservation of the cow ought to be encouraged in
India. The cow in India gave milk to a country in which infant mortality
was very high, and it also gave to agriculturists their bullocks, the dung
for manure and fuel, and the dung for the making of floors Because the
floors of the houses were made with dung, the people were saved the
necessity of wearing shoes m the houses If the floors were of stone
it would be necessary for them to wear boots.

The Chairman had stated that the educated classes of India had a natural
aversion from agriculture , but it was not so much the fact that the educated
men of India were averse from agriculture, as it was the fact that agriculture
had ceased to be profitable, and even the sons of large landowners had to
enter one of the professions.

Conditions in India differed Except in Bengal, where the permanent
settlement prevailed, the holdings in India were small Why did Sir
William Wedderburn ask for an inquiry as to what an economical holding
wts ** It was because he thougbt that the land was so much subdivided
that the individual proprietor was not able to produce enough for himself,
and he wanted to secure that holdings should not be subdivided beyond a
VOL. xvi 2 L

418 The Agricultural Development of India

certain limit He (the speaker) believed that if the Government was to
undertake legislation on the lines he had just referred to, there would be no
danger

As to the permanent settlement in Bengal, he recognized that the vested
interests were strong in Bengal, and that there was the probability that
those vested interests might prevent the Government from taking any action
directly, but the Government might work indirectly it might put a
higher tax on the large landowners, and use the money obtained in buying
up land for the small proprietors

The Chairman here suggested that, in view of the fact that Mr Thakur
had exceeded the allowance of five minutes for speeches, he should read a
Paper before the Association on the subject of land tenure in India. Then
he would have an opportunity of doing justice to the subject He thought
that he could hardly do justice to it on the present occasion

Mr Thakur, continuing, dealt with the question of the application to
agriculture of scientific principles He said that the proprietor of a
small holding could not afford to buy machinery, and therefore he was not
able to apply any theoretical knowledge which he might have The
Government might buy the machinery and let it out to the proprietors of
small holdings and charge a tax, as in the case of irrigation In India it
was not possible to do without Government action

Lady Katharine Stuart wished to say how greatly she had enjoyed
the delightful Paper It was very clear and instructive Her family had had
a little personal experience of agriculture, and she thought that there was a
reason for the neglect of agriculture by the educated classes in India, in
addition to the objection to manual labour It was the uncertainty that
was involved in agriculture She had known many clever, good farmers,
and she had heard of others, who had been ruined by bad seasons People
looked at the precariousness of the industry when they were choosing
careers for their sons It seemed to her that what was needed was some
form of cooperation in which all the responsibility would not have to be
borne by the person who went in for agriculture, but in which he would still
be his own master She sympathized with Dr Pollen when he said that he
thought that the man should be the master in his own small holding.

As to the cow, she thought that the suggestion which had been made was
a most excellent one Milk was the most important food The encourage
ment of cow-keeping was one of the best methods in which to go forward

She would wish to draw the attention of the lecturer and the audience
to the work of Captain Petavel in connection with farm schools Both by
the wisdom of teaching the young, and by the apostolic " foolishness of
preaching M to the adult, the work could go forward in a land where science
was no substitute for religion, but her most able servitor.

Miss Bradon referred to the teaching of agriculture as earned out m
Marchirlo The system of teaching in that Italian Valley was so good,
that she had many times wished that Captain Petavel was there to see
it. Possibly the climate there would suit many Indians She was quite
certain that the streams coming down the mountains there might be applied
still more usefully, and make the fields still more productive.

The Agricultural Development of India 419

Mr Sydney Roberts said that he agreed that, if school children had
gardens, those gardens would naturally become a first step towards an
interest in agriculture His hopes and fears in connection with his own
garden in India were a very powerful link with, and a key to, the hopes
and fears of the agriculturists in the country round about As his garden
flourished or flagged, he had an opportunity of knowing what must have
been the feelings of those who were more seriously interested because they
were interested in their crops

He wished to make one or two suggestions with reference to agricultural
education

In the first place, he had an observation to make which was of universal
application in India It was that the Indian parent, or guardian, was
providing for the future of a young man, who would not have the choice of
being a bachelor or of being a married man, but who was invariably
intended to be a married man and the head of a family , and, therefore, a
parent or a guardian who was selecting a vocation for a young man, was
obliged to chose one in which there would be, perhaps not a very large,
but an assured income which would maintain a married man

He agreed most heartily that it was desirable to improve agricultural
teaching in India, and to introduce further agricultural teaching, particu
larly the highest form of it , but it was essential that the parents or the
guardians, or the young men themselves, should see before them an assured
career As had been pointed out by the Author, India required infinitely
more agricultural schools and colleges and places of research than at present
existed The Presidency with which the fortunes of his family had been
linked for many years, and which was generally known as the “ benighted '
Presidency, set an excellent example in this matter to the rest of India If
large numbers of educated men were to be attracted to agriculture, it must
be proved to them that, if they went in for agriculture, they would have a
career before them It must be remembered that the Indian was essentially
a member of a joint family, and essentially also a married man, and that,
therefore, he could not start out as a sort of pioneer, because he could not
throw his responsibilities overboard

When the Colonial Exhibition was held in Marseilles in 1906, he went,
as an unauthorized and unpaid deputation, to the Exhibition, on his return
from a period of leave in England, in order to try and find out whether,
in their system of education in their Colonies, the French were doing any
thing in the way of agricultural education It would appear that, after an
interval of fourteen years, Ceylon had begun what had been already well
established in the French possessions in Morocco and Algeria by 1906
The introduction of nature study into Indian schools did not involve
embarking on an untried experiment It was embarking on something
which had proved successful in Algeria and other parts of Northern Africa,
and which, therefore, must succeed in India

The subject of the cow was one of great interest in Southern India It
was inextricably bound up with the very important subject of the forest laws,
forestry generally. There was a delightful tradition in the Forestry
department about a certain high official The grazing capacity of a forest

420 The Agricultural Development of India

wu the number of cattle which could safely be turned to graze in it
without destroying all hope of getting young trees, without the growth
of which the forest must inevitably pensh A certain high official, being
informed that the grazing capacity of a forest was two thousand head of
cattle, ordered, by a stroke of the pen, that the grazing capacity should be
raised to four thousand

The trouble with regard to the cow was that, with the limited grazing
grounds, there was competition between the cattle which were in full milk
and what had been known as the “ old dry cow ” He had no right
to enter into the controversy He only asked, “ What are you going to do
to improve your breed of cattle, if you do not dimmish the numbers of
useless heads ? ’

With regard to leather, it was not possible to improve the export of
leather until the police work was improved In order to prevent cattle
thieving to some extent, people would brand their cattle, and therefore
destroy the value of the hides If there was good police work there would
be less branding

He was in strong sympathy with the legislative alterations which the
Author had suggested , but he thought that it might be a long time before
they were earned out He considered that success would be achieved on
the lines of increasing what might be called pnmary agncultural education,
on the lines of intensifying secondary agncultural education, and on the
lmes of improving the highest agncultural education

The Madras Presidency had succeeded in adding five rupees to the
value of every bale of cotton grown in Tinnevelly The total number of
bales was 70,000 per annum

It was necessary to take human nature as it was The matter of
following up agnculture, and of studying agncultural science was a matter
also of dignity Among other things which could be done to help
agnculture in India was the starting of an Indian Order of Agncultural
Ment An Order of Agncultural Merit already existed in France He
senously believed that it would be a good thing if the zemindar who set an
excellent example over a number of years in regard to improved methods
of agnculture or cattle breeding, or improved methods of lrngation, had
such an order bestowed upon him It would be an excellent bait to
those who always required some star or order on their breast as a stimulus
to further exertion

The Chairman proposed a very hearty vote of thanks to the Author
and to the speakers He said that if he were m Mr Rice’s place he
would make a note of the names and addresses of certain of the speakers
that afternoon, and ask them to read papers before the Association on
future occasions. The discussion had been a most interesting one He
wished to express his own thanks to the Association for having given him
such an interesting afternoon

The motion was carried by acclamation.

Mr Ryan moved that a hearty vote of thanks be given to the Chairman
for presiding

The Agricultural Development of India 421

The motion was seconded and carried unanimously.

The Secretary said that the Author ought to have had an opportunity
of replying , but the hour was so late that he would not be able to reply.

The Chairman suggested that the Author should write his reply.

The Secretary said that the Author might be able to send him some
notes on the subject. He (the Secretary) had been rather anxious to
speak , but under the circumstances he would not be able to.

The proceedings then terminated.

Mr Sen Gupta wntes as follows :

I am in full sympathy with the suggestion made by the Chairman that
agriculture should be taught in rural schools Even a “ smattering " of
agriculture gained at the village primary school cannot fail to be of use
both to the future farmer and the farm labourer of India. An intelligent
farm labourer, capable of taking a genuine interest in his work on the
land, is obviously to be preferred to another who has no interest in
the land beyond earning his living I believe the village primary school
should be able to do much in the way of arousing such an interest in its
scholars I would, however, not go so far as to agree with another
speaker who suggested that agriculture should occupy a place similar
to that of a second language in all schools. I do not think such an
arrangement is either practicable or desirable We have no intention of
becoming a nation of agriculturists only, although agriculture will always
remain our chief industry Agriculture, as a compulsory subject in school
education, will simply be wasted on those who are going to follow other
pursuits of life than agncultural Moreover, agriculture is not a subject,
but rather a conglomeration of subjects which are best taught in schools
especially set apart for the purpose, if the teaching is to be of any use to
those who are past the elementary school stage

In spite of the Chairman’s remark that large holdings are a mistake I
still adhere to the belief that the future of India’s agriculture lies in
extensive farming conducted by men possessing capital and initiative.
Perhaps it would have been better if I advocated something even larger
than an average English farm — something similar to the industrialized farm
recommended by Sir A D. Hall m his “ Agriculture after the War ”
Small holdings, without cooperation, are the very negation of improve-
ment and progress Even when backed by the most efficient cooperative
organization, it is a question whether they are as productive of good
results as large farms capable of using all the resources of science

More speakers than one have pointed out the necessity of protecting
cows from being slaughtered I hope they are not labouring under the
misapprehension that I have favoured their slaughter Even in a pre-
eminently beef -eating country like England, cows are never slaughtered
until they are useless as milk-producers We shall certainly not think of
adopting m India the uneconomical method of killing cows for the
production of meat so long as they are yielding milk.

It has been remarked that we should decrease our head of live-stock,

422 The Agricultural Development of India

especially cattle, owing to the insufficient grazing capacity of the laud
Would it not be wiser to find a different solution to the problem ? —
namely, to increase the grazing capacity of the land which, coupled with a
liberal use of concentrated foods, will allow of even an augmented head of
livestock being comfortably and profitably maintained on the land
Scientific agriculture is not powerless in the matter of improving pastures
and meadows, but before any advance can be made in this direction it is
essential that the country must wake up to the importance of developing
our sadly neglected live-stock as one of the two fundamental branches of
agriculture

There are many other points to which replies might be given, but as I
do not propose to write another paper, they must be left alone.

4 2 3

INDIA AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
By Kanhayalal Gauba

The Covenant of the League of Nations, with which I am
particularly concerned to-day, forms the first part of the
Treaty of Peace signed at the Palace of Versailles on the
28th of June this year. (The Treaty is a voluminous
document running into nearly 450 different articles.) The
Covenant is a short and brief affair of 26 Articles, but if we
add to this the Labour sections (Part XIII., Arts. 387-487,
of the Treaty), which form an essential supplement to the
Covenant of the League, we have a total of nearly 70 articles.

Even the most casual observer will not have failed to
notice the remarkable contrast between Part I. and the rest
of the fifteen Parts of the Treaty — excepting, of course,
Part XIII. The Treaty of Peace is, as it were, split into
two irreconcilable and well-marked divisions. It is the
work of two men. Two ideals, two visions, two outlooks
pervade it. The first part belongs to youth and the time
yet to come, to liberalism and hope ; the second to age,
to the centuries which have sped, to conservatism and
distrust of the destinies of man. Just as the future and
the past are irreconcilable, as the minds of the great President
of the United States and the old Premier of France are
irreconcilable, even so is the Covenant of the League of
Nations incommensurable with the terms of " peace.”
With these terms of peace I am not here concerned, nor
do I propose to discuss them, except those very few which
are relevant to our discussion to-day — I mean the terms
affecting directly or indirectly the continent of Asia.

After five years of terrible warfare, the world calls a
halt and mankind takes a reckoning. Where do we stand ?

424 India and the League of Nations

On the brink of a precipice; on the verge of not only
national calamity, but world-tragedy. The world must
be saved.

The Covenant of the League of Nations is the outcome
of this desire. The world must be saved. The old order
has failed ; a new era must be inaugurated. But even
to-day, after all the lessons of the past, we find people
talking of alliances. Why not form an alliance (as indeed
there has been formed, I am sorry to say) between England,
France, andthe United States? You would secure the peace
of the world immediately. Would you? These people do not
understand that the very principle of alliances is wrong and
doomed to failure. It has always failed, and it will always
fail. To create one alliance is to help to create an opposing
alliance. You can never convince the world that the
alliance you form is merely for the preservation of peace.
What guarantee is there? Your good intentions they
would not accept, for is not even the way to hell paved
with good intentions ? If you can form an alliance with
good intentions, so can others. If you can build armaments
with good intentions, why not others? No, this whole
principle is evil — fundamentally amiss. The world has
run on a wrong gear for centuries, the gear must be
changed ; the strings we have played have been out
of tune, hence the discord. To change the tune is not
enough : we want new strings, a new bow, and new music.
The world wants, not an alliance of one or two nations, not
a combination of one or two peoples, but a League of all the
nations, a combination of every State and people, irrespec-
tive of creed, colour, or nationality. We want a League,
not of men, but of mankind. Si vis pacem, para pacem .

Readers of history will know that the idea of the League
of Nations is not in the least a new one. A league of
nations is merely an extension of the principle of inter-
national convention and law. Pierre Dubois, in 1305,
suggested a combination of all Christian countries for the
furtherance of peace and prevention of war by the establish-

India and the League of Nations 425

ment of a Court of Arbitration to settle differences which
might arise between the members of his League. Antoine
Marini, the Chancellor of Bohemia, propounded a similar
scheme a century and a half later. He advocated, not only
an alliance of all Christian States, but also the establishment
of a supreme Congress in Basle. Emerie Cruc^e, in 1623, in
expounding his plans for a League of Nations, wanted, not
an alliance of Christian States, but an alliance — if you can so
call it — of all the existing States in the world, with a
Federal Council in Venice. There have been since many
similar attempts, such as the Holy Alliance, but I have
scarcely time to deal with them here ; sufficient is it to say
that the first real foundation of a League was laid at the
Hague in the shape of the two Conventions.

The present Convention is almost entirely based on
General Smuts’ now famous book. It is not my business
to-day to defend or discuss the principles on which the
Covenant is based. These have already been eloquently
enunciated by others better fitted to do so than myself.
Moreover I feel that to restate the arguments in favour of a
League of Nations would be merely pronouncing myself a
back-number. I regard the League as an accepted fact,
and as such I now propose to deal with it as briefly as
possible.

The object of the League is, according to the preamble of
the Covenant, to promote international co-operation and
to achieve international peace and security. This the
members of the League hope to accomplish by accepting
obligations not to resort to war : firstly, by adopting open
and honourable relations among themselves, and, secondly,
by treating as sacred all international understandings and
treaty obligations.

Thus the terms of reference of the League are numerous.
Its functions, according to the Covenant as accepted by the
Paris Conference, are (1) the limitation of armaments, (2)
settlement of international disputes, (3) the granting of
mandates and their supervision, and (4) miscellaneous

4*6 India and the League of Nations

duties, such as the solution of labour questions, trade,
industry, traffic in women and children, and so on. As
time goes on the duties of the League will become still
more manifold.

The working of the League is to be effected through the
instrumentality of an Assembly and a Council, with a
permanent Secretariat. The Assembly will be composed of
the representatives of the members of the League (at present
thirty-one States). To these we add fifteen more who have
already been invited to accede to the Covenant. They will
all probably signify their assent either before or soon after
the first meeting of the League. While the Assembly is open
to all members accepting the Covenant, the membership of
the Council is limited. The composition, to begin with, will
consist of the representatives of the five Great Powers and
the representatives of four States elected by the Assembly.
The functions of the Secretariat are what they usually are,
but one clause in Art. 7 is worthy of note. It runs : “All
positions under or in connection with the League, including
the secretariat, shall be open equally to men and women.”
Eternal Woman !

The Covenant makes elaborate provisions for the settle-
ment of disputes, and, if the members of the League
endeavour to follow in the spirit of the Covenant and
international justice, war is virtually impossible. The
limitation of armaments, coupled with efficient machinery for
the enforcement of obligations and decisions, make the
League a powerful instrument in the maintenance of
international peace.

As the Covenant now stands, the following Asiatic
countries, being signatories of the Treaty of Peace, are thus
original members of the League : Japan, China, India,
Siam, and a part of Syria under the King of the Hedjaz ;
and among those invited to accept the Covenant,
Persia is the only Asiatic country. Persia accepting, as she
most probably will, we can divide Asia almost perfectly
into two parts, one half represented on the League and the

427

India and the League of Nations

other not The dividing line runs from the Sea of Okhotska
along the Yabloni mountains to the Pamir Plateau, then
southward along the eastern slopes of the Hindukush to
Kelat, then westward to the Elburz Mountains and the
Caspian Sea, and finally terminating at Aleppo and the
coast of Palestine. Countries south and east will be
represented in the near future at the seat of the League ;
those to the north and west not yet. The unrepresented
States south of the Line will be Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia
and Annam ; States unrepresented north and west of the
Line will be Russia-in-Asia, Afghanistan and Turkey.

I have often held that if there is an eighth wonder of the
world the privilege of its possession belongs to my
country. The absence of all Indian interest in affairs
outside the boundaries of India is, forsooth, a wonder — to
some a marvel of colossal dimensions. It was only the
other day that I wished to discuss the position of India as a
member of the League with an eminent Indian politician,
but what was my surprise to find that he had not even read
the Covenant (the treaty was published nearly a year ago) !
I then asked him if he didn’t consider India’s entry into
the field of international diplomacy as one of the most
momentous events of modern times. He replied, so long
as India got poetry as a transferred subject in Mr.
Montagu’s Bill he did not mind and did not care what
else happened !

I did not blame him. Being an Indian, I could under-
stand him perfectly. Did not history corroborate his point
of view ? Of course it did. From Vedic times down to
this year of grace 1920, has India ever aspired to a large
empire ? have Indians ever desired to go beyond the
frontiers of their country and colonize other lands ? have
Indians ever wished to cross the ocean highways and have
dominions beyond the sea ? There have been outbursts
here and there, scattered in time and scattered in place, but
nothing definite, nothing consecutive, nothing real. We
have always desired to die within the borders of

428 India and the League of Nations

our own land. We have had no ambitions beyond the
ambitions to compose poems and discuss metaphysics.
The material aspect of life has never presented itself to our
minds. Although we have from time immemorial been
subjected to innumerable foreign invasions, religious
persecutions and political servitude, the flow of our rhyme
and rhythm has not been checked, and poems we still
prefer to a Government.

If this was deplorable in the past it is still more so to-day.
I ndia cannot afford to be oblivious of the world around her.
India must either move or a go under.” The tests of
modern life and international existence are keen and severe,
and it is only the fittest who will survive. India as a
national unit is not enough ; India must be an international
unit. It is not enough that her problems are of national
importance ; her problems must be of international import-
ance. Japan realized the significance and importance of
breaking the shell of antiquated ideas and tradition, and
emerging into the world of competition. She made up
her mind in 1854, within a year of the first Perry
incident Her struggle for recognition was bitter (the
story of her remarkable career of success sounds like a fairy
tale). But India has already been “ recognized,” and her
original membership of the League of Nations makes her
position in the sphere of international relations singularly
fortunate.

India’s new position under the League calls for the most
thorough restatement of the theories of Indian policy and
the future of Indian diplomacy. It may be argued that
until India is mistress within her own borders all talk of
international relations is out of the question. I venture to
deny the force of this argument; but even if I were to
admit it, I would still hold that it is the duty of India to
make herself heard and her influence felt in foreign
affairs, and particularly in questions affecting the peace of
Asia. The theories of her internal government also want
radical alteration, and the political outlook must be different.

India and the League of Nations 429

I will endeavour to show, taking the problems point by
point, that the prospects of the future are not half so gloomy
as they may appear at first sight.

The manner of India’s representation at the Assembly
of the League is a matter for conjecture. Who will represent
her ? We must bear in mind that a maximum of three
representatives is allowed, but each country has not more
than one vote. The obvious interpretation of this is that
these representatives will not have any private discretion,
but will speak and vote as ordered by their respective
Governments (an existing principle of international
diplomacy). This is one of the faults of the Covenant
which I have refrained from emphasizing in the hope that
the League will itself rectify the shortcomings of the
Covenant. In the meantime we must accept the Covenant
as it stands.

India is to have three representatives and one vote.
The first question which presents itself is the question
of representation. Who is to represent her ? In the Peace
Conference she was represented by the Secretary of State
in person, Lord Sinha, and the Maharajah of Bikanir. A
better combination at the time could hardly have been
possible. (Lord Sinha was not a signatory of the Treaty
of Peace.) It is scarcely probable that in the future such a
successful combination would be possible, or, even if it were
possible, that it would work.

The Councils under the new Reform Bill have set up, for
the first time in the annals of British India, an elected
majority to control and have a voice in matters affecting the
government and administration of India. It is not likely
that this elected majority will for long content itself with
the functions assigned to it under the new Government of
India Bill. They would justly claim the right to elect, or.
at the very least, to have a say in the election or choice
of the representative or representatives to the League.
Nominations in the face of a hostile elected majority will
be neither feasible nor desirable. But there is another

430

India and the League of Nations

point we must bear in mind The Assembly of the League
may reject by a majority vote the credentials of representa-
tives not having the support of the Councils in India. This
would be an unpleasant pass.

It is not an improbable supposition that for some time to
come, at any rate, the Secretary of State will be one of the
representatives for India in the Assembly of the League.
He will co-ordinate the views of the Cabinet and the Govern-
ment of India. It is also natural to expect that of the other
two, one will be an Indian prince and one a commoner. In
the selection of this last mentioned, Indian public opinion
will naturally claim a voice, and it cannot be denied that
before long this member of the delegation will have to be
elected.

My mention of a prince in the Indian delegation raises a
somewhat moot point. So far, in Imperial Conferences and
in the Peace Conference, the nomination of a prince
to represent the States was an affair entirely between the
India Office and the Government of India. Northern India,
which is so sparse in great commoners, is evidently rich in
brilliant princes 1 For are not both Bikanir and Patiala in
Northern India? But jealousy was never a crime among
princes ! However, selection by nomination will not for
long do ; election will have to be substituted. Who said
democracy was a dead-letter ?

The Delhi Conferences revealed a significant fact — that
the Princes of India had no longer a desire to keep them-
selves separate and apart, but to co-ordinate one with
another. This is a happy sign. The Indian States have so
far been regarded and have acted as separate units, but in
the exigencies of modern times they have come together,
and they desire to come still further together. The
conferences have crystallized into a permanent institution.
The new Chamber of Indian Princes has no executive
power, but it will, no doubt, elect a member to represent
it at the League.

Having considered the question of the membership of the

India and the League of Nations 431

Indian legation at the seat of the League, let us consider
briefly India’s position in Asia.

The growth of Japan in the last half-century is a matter
not only for surprise and wonder, but, one must admit, for
fear and alarm, too. It was only in 1862 that Japan
was invaded and bombarded by European vessels of war,
and to-day, scarcely sixty years after, Japan stands in the
foremost rank of the Great Powers of the world, threatening
not only to swamp the Powers around her, but to overrun
the world itself. It is not so very long ago I was reading
the text of a secret treaty between Germany and Japan,
signed on the one hand by a certain obscure Japanese
plenipotentiary named Oda, and on the other by Lutzius, the
German Ambassador from Berlin. The authenticity of this
treaty has been repeatedly denied, but with evidence from
Japanese and other sources, and taking into consideration
various facts of current events, the existence of such a
treaty is not at all improbable. The first Article gives the
clue to the whole of this wonderful document. It runs :
“ Both High Contracting Parties bind themselves, as soon
as the world’s political situation permits, to help the third
Party, Russia, to obtain under their direction the settlement
of her internal affairs and the position of a world Power.”
Of the three States mentioned, Japan is the only one which
could act as the Good Samaritan. Germany, by herself,
could not rise again for at least half a century to come, and
it is the same with Russia ; but with the aid of a friendly
Power they could both stand on their legs again in a com-
paratively short time. The question is not whether they
must rise again or not, for it goes without saying that
the future of international relations will indeed be a
sad affair without the co-operation of Germany and Russia,
but the real question is, which Power is to give the helping
hand? Great Britain, France, and Italy are cooped up
with prejudice and hatred, America is busy solving her own
internal affairs; the only remaining Power is, therefore,
Japan. While Europe is committing felo de se> Japanese

4 3 2 India and the League of Nations

imperialism grows more and more. Think of it : Japan
helping to rejuvenate Germany and Russia 1 Think of it!
We might as well drop Germany and Russia out of
our discussion and speak of a Japanese Empire stretching, at
first, from the North Sea to the Sea of Okhotska, and then
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, everything inclusive.

Can this be avoided ? Is it possible to evolve the future
of the world on different lines ? I think it is. In Europe
the only solution is the immediate entry of Russia and
Germany into the League — the helping hand being not
Japanese but European — and in Asia, future peace lies in
the hands of China and India.

China, I am afraid, is nearly out of our grasp. Shantung
has been made over, and in a few years China will follow,
and then, one by one, the remaining Asiatic States must pass
into the Yellow fold. This disaster, in my opinion, can
also be averted. In the near future India’s membership of
the League is not enough : she must be able to defend her
country. Her frontiers must be secure and her shores pro-
tected, and the air above her impregnable. With India
safe, Asia is safe; with India lost, Asia is lost. There is
no better guarantee for the continent of Australia than an
awakened, enlightened and prosperous India.

Did I not just now say that one of the necessities for the
peace of Asia was that India’s frontiers should be secure?
With Afghanistan making sporadic invasions and incursions
into India, any further disarmament of India (she is anything
but armed) would be incompatible with national safety.
Afghanistan is neither a member of the League, nor has she
expressed any desire to become one. Her inhabitants are
wild and ignorant, and live mainly by the sword. The
frontiers between India and Afghanistan are infested with
countless independent, lawless tribes, who admit no con-
vention except the right of war, and they keep the peace
only so long as they are paid to do it — and not often then.
During the last year their activities have caused not a little
anxiety in the Punjab and Northern India in general.

India and the League of Nations 433

Lord Curzon may have many shortcomings, but certainly
weakness is not one of them. He may have committed
many errors and misjudgments in his administration of the
internal affairs of India, but one can never accuse him of
having committed any error or misjudgment in the
administration of India's foreign relations. His frontier
policy was sound. Lord Chelmsford is an entirely
different man. If strength is malady, the present
Governor-General is undoubtedly healthy. I am not here
concerned with Lord Chelmsford’s internal administration of
India, nor would I care to encroach upon that theme, but few,
I believe, will disagree that the Governor- General’s foreign
policy has, as a whole been a failure. The treaty negotiated
with Afghanistan by Sir Hamilton Grant on behalf of the
Government of India is one of the most short-sighted and
stupid affairs in the history of modern India.

The treaty which has just been concluded with Persia
bears, on the other hand, an entirely different stamp. It is
Curzonian through and through. It carries the impression
of the hand of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The treaty is a strong “affair” — in fact, so strong that it
runs the danger of being disallowed by the League.

The provisions of this treaty are unquestionably sweep-
ing in their character. Although I cannot personally see
that it amounts to a mandate for Persia, it is not unlike
the beginning of an Egyptian Protectorate. The clauses
of the treaty briefly are :

1. The British Government reaffirms once again its

respect for the independence and integrity of
Persia.

2. The British Government will supply at the cost of

the Persian Government the services of experts
for the conduct of administration ;

3. The British Government will also supply at the

cost of the Persian Government whatever arms
and munitions may be necessary to preserve law
and order in Persia and to protect her frontiers ;

434

India and the League of Nations

4* The British Government will provide a loan for
which adequate security must be provided by the
Persian Government ;

5. The loan of £ 2,000,000 is granted to Persia
provided she pays an interest of 7 per cent, while
making this interest and the sinking fund the first
charge upon certain of her revenues ;

6 . The British Government promises its help and
support in various economic and industrial schemes
and enterprises.

One million pounds out of the loan of two millions comes
from the pocket of the Indian taxpayer. What is his
position in regard to it ?

While leaving you to ponder over this question, I pass on
to the question of mandates. Slightly over a year ago
Sir Sidney Olivier, in a pamphlet published by the Oxford
University Press, pleaded for the protection of what he
termed “primitive peoples” by the League of Nations.
His appeal was couched in sincere and eloquent terms.
Sir Sidney was quite right when he said: “Whatever
agreement the League may be able to reach for the
limitation of armaments among the Powers, . . . the safe-
guards against the oppression of primitive peoples under
European overlordship must be absolute under penalty of
forfeiture.”

For the purpose of protecting people not yet able to
stand on their own legs, the Covenant of the League
introduces the principle of mandates, whereby advanced
nations, on account of their resources, experience, or
geographical position, accept the tutelage of backward
countries on behalf of the League. Central Africa, the
islands of the Pacific, Armenia, and Mesopotamia are
conspicuous examples of countries in which this new
system of mandates will be employed. There are many
who oppose this principle of mandates, and frankly I do not
lifce it, but at the moment, in spite of its many weak points

India and the League of Nations 435

and grave shortcomings, it appears to be the only possible
solution of a thorny problem.

The future of that vast country known as Mesopotamia
still remains undetermined. I believe I shall not be antago-
nizing anyone when I suggest that the mandate for
Mesopotamia should be entrusted to India. There are
some who have advocated this on the grounds that
Mesopotamia was conquered by Indian soldiers; but Indian
soldiers never embarked on any conquest, and those who
believe in the League of Nations know of no conquest —
other than the conquest of hearts ! On the other hand, there
are many who are against this proposition for reasons which,
to say the least, are vague. Personally I cannot see a more
suitable or feasible solution of the problem than granting the
mandate to India. Somebody has to take the responsibility
of the task of the development of Mesopotamia, and
European nations are alien in temperament, outlook and
manners. The choice thus falls to Asia, and which
country is better fitted to perform this duty than India ?

I have already mentioned once or twice that Part XI 1 1. of
the Treaty of Peace (Arts. 387-487) forms an integral part
of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Part XIII. is
generally termed the Labour Covenant, and the Articles in
this part and one Article in Part I. form one of the most
remarkable documents ever penned by the hand of man.
(Just as the League of Nations is a lasting tribute to the
genius of President Wilson, so is the Labour Covenant a
testimony to Mr. Barnes.) As the preamble says the
High Contracting Parties, moved by sentiments of justice
and humanity, as well as a desire to secure the peace of the
world, agree to the Labour Covenant. The objects
of this Covenant are the regulation and standardization of
the hours of work, the prevention of unemployment, the
provision of an adequate living wage for every workman,
the protection of the poor from sickness and disease, and
also the protection of women and young children and the
care of the old and injured. The traffic in human beings is

436 India and the League of Nations

also a matter of concern for the League of Nations. The
conditions of labour in India under this Covenant must
undergo a radical change. What more happy omen can
there be for the Asiatic labourer than India and Japan
accepting (during the Washington Conference) the eight-
hour day ?

Before I bring to a close this rapid survey, I must
encroach for a very few minutes on your patience in order
to sum up India’s position as a factor of Asiatic peace. I
believe it was Tolstoy who said : “ I see Europe in flames.”
Nogi carried on the prophecy by declaring that the second
great war would be in Asia. Looking at things as they
are, it certainly does not appear improbable that the next
great conflict will be waged east of the Ural Mountains.
The centre of this conflict, if it comes about, will un-
doubtedly be India. Already events are moving to that
end. The discontent in the Mohammedan world over the
unsettled fate of Turkey, the alliance between the Afghans
and the Soviet Government of Moscow, coupled with the
latest exhibitions of Japanese Imperialism in Shantung, all
point to a general Asiatic conflagration in the near future.
Of the countries that would suffer, India would probably
suffer most.

I have already pointed out the stern necessity of a strong
frontier between India and Afghanistan. To safeguard her
coasts, India wants a fleet compatible with her national
safety. Personally I have always felt that fleets scattered
in different parts of the world are better safeguards to a far-
flung Empire than a fleet, however powerful, concentrated
at a single point, and nothing has made me happier than
to see that Lord Jellicoe, in his Australian Report (published
recently), takes the same view. India could well afford to
equip and man a large enough fleet to defend her shores.
Both Australia and India are fortunate in having natural
safeguards. The Pacific Islands form a protective belt,
(they could be effectively mined in case of war), and the
Straits of Malacca could be easily defended by a con-

India and the League of Nations 437

centration of the Indian and Australian Fleets at Singa-
pore. With the limitation of armaments, a couple of small
fleets should be sufficient to keep the peace in the
Pacific.

I am sorry President Wilson had to abandon his “point”
regarding the freedom of the seas. For myself I cannot
see what great objection can be raised to this principle, as
the days of fleets are numbered. Of all forms of national
armament, navies will be the first to be abolished, since there
will be no use for them. Lord Fisher, while “scrapping
the lot” of the Fleet, pins his hope on submarines alone.
I feel I can go a step further and scrap the submarines too !
To cross the ocean highways in the near future in anything
else except an aeroplane would be pronouncing oneself an
antiquated fossil I The transport of cargo through the air
is only a matter of a few years, and the freedom of the
seas would be the natural sequence of events, since ships
would automatically pass out of use. In the meantime we
want a decentralization of the British Fleet.

The real safeguards, however, to Asiatic peace will be
the League of Nations. Firm and abiding peace will only be
a certainty when every nation realizes and believes or is
convinced that its safety lies, not in its armament but in its
disarmament. This also can only be when every State is a
member of the League. Therefore, just as the crux of the
question of European peace hinges on the admission of the
Central Powers into the fold of the League, so does the
peace of Asia depend on the immediate admission of
Russia and Turkey. To toy with Russia and Turkey is
playing with fire. Mohammedan feeling must not be injured,
it must be appeased. If handled with statesmanship it can
become the bedrock of Asiatic stability, if handled with
prejudice the pyre of Asiatic prosperity. For this reason I
have always believed that Egypt and Ireland should be
given seats on the League analogous to those of Persia and
India.

Finally, I have one note of warning to sound. The

438 India and the League of Nations

co-operation and sympathy of Asiatic peoples in general
with the aims and object of the League of Nations can be
but half-hearted until that great principle of the equality of
races is recognized. From an authentic account of the
Peace Conference it appears that the amendment known as
the Japanese amendment to the draft of the Covenant was
not opposed by the members of the American delegation, it
had the support of the priests from Whitehall, the members
of the Indian delegation welcomed it, but the amendment
was rejected. None other than one of our own dominions
was responsible for it. There is, however, nothing in the
Covenant to prevent the issue being brought up again, and
it is likely that the equality of races will be recognized. It
must be.

I have tried to deal with the League of Nations in Asia,
with special reference to India. My survey, owing to the
exigencies of time and circumstances, has been necessarily
rapid and very incomplete, but if I have succeeded in con-
vincing at least some of you, and in particular some of my
countrymen, that the Covenant is no wild-cat scheme, and
that the League is not some fantastic creation, or figment of
the imagination of madmen, I amply fulfil my task. Those
who distrust the League on account of the provisions of
Article 10 (under this Article the integrity of India in case of
an Afghan invasion is guaranteed by the League) may take
an assurance from one who has studied the Covenant with
some care, that there is absolutely nothing in the document
which fixes the status quo in atemum . The very objects of
the League are to alter the status quo of States without war,
and to give liberty to subject peoples without revolution.
Nobody is so foolish as to suggest that the Covenant as it
stands is perfect, or the League of Nations as constituted
ideal, but it is a beginning. Let us give it a chance, and
not only a chance, but our active aid and co-operation,
so that it may succeed in the great task before it, and
secure to the world international peace and mutual
goodwill. We must remember that the history of the world

439

India and the League of Nations

is the history of the decay of empires. Egypt, Persia, China,
Greece, Rome, Spain, France, all have seen their empires
rise and fall. I remember towards dusk one evening, scarcely
more than a year and a half ago, I was standing in the court-
yard of the Palazzo Senatorio in Rome, gazing on perhaps
the most wonderful and awe-inspiring sight I had ever seen.
It was the sight of Rome crumbled to the dust — a heap
of ruins. In the evening twilight I could discern a pillar
here and a column there, a pile of bricks in this corner and
aheap of sand in that “Is this the Forum T I asked. Yes,
it was the Forum — the Forum of ancient Rome. This was
all that was left of that Mistress of the World, the City of
the Seven Hills, the Eternal City. Yes, that Rome a
heap of dust. Yes, that Forum a pile of mouldering ruins.
The Palace of the Caesars, where was it ? I peered through
the evening gloom. Just a vague outline of it I could see.
It was like a ghost enshrouded in mystery, dead as the
night. Its lights were extinguished. Rome's lights were
extinguished.

“THEY THAT TAKE THE SWORD SHALL PERISH BY THE
SWORD."

440

DISCUSSION ON THE FOREGOING PAPER

At a meeting of the East India Association, which was held at the
Lincolnshire Room, 7A, Tothill Street, Westminster, S W , on Monday,
Apnl 19, 19*0, a paper was read by Kanhayalal Gauba, Esq, entitled
" India and the League of Nations * Major David Davies was in the
chair, and the following ladies and gentlemen, amongst others, were
present Sir William Ovens Clark, Mr Robert H Cust, Lady Kensington,
Lady Katharine Stuart, Major General Count A Spiridovitch, Mr W
Coldstream, k i h , Miss Burton, Miss Simms, Mr D N Bannerjea, Miss
M Sorabjee, Mrs Jackson, Miss Addey, Mr F Whelan, Mr and Mrs
H R H Wilkinson, Mr G Prasad, Miss Vertue, Mr I N. Thakor,
Mr and Mrs H R Cook, Miss Mary Morgan, Mr W Frank, Mr W O
Clayton Greene, Mrs Drury, Miss E St. John Wileman, Mr F C
Channing, ics (retired), Miss Hopley, Mrs Hyde, Mr Duncan Irvine,
ics (retired), Miss F R Scatcherd, Colonel F S Terry, Miss Collis,
Mr H R James and son, Mr and Mrs P D Robertson, Colonel and
Mrs Aphn, Mr J B Hall, Mr H L Leach, Miss H M Howsm Mr
G E R Grant Brown, 1 cs (retired), Mr C Leo Parker, Mr J S Dhunji
bhoy, Mr F Grubb, Mr F H Brown, Mr K B L Seth, Mr F J P Richter,
Mr E H Tabak, and Mr J B Penn ngton, acting as Hon Secretary

The Chairman Ladies and gentlemen, I have much pleasure in coming
here this afternoon to take the chair, and I desire to thank the Association
very cordially for their kind invitation I am afraid I must plead great
ignorance about India, but I am particularly interested m the future and
success of the League of Nations, and therefore I was extremely pleased
to accept the invitation to come here to-day I have come to hear a most
interesting lecture from Mr Gauba, who, as you are aware, is a student at
Cambridge University, and has already made a name for himself by
delivering several interesting lectures on questions connected with India
I feel sure we all appreciate the great work which the East India Associa-
tion is doing m bringing us together, and giving the people of this country
an opportunity of meeting their fnends from India m order to discuss
questions in which we are all vitally interested, and we are very much
indebted to Mr Gauba for coming this afternoon I am sure he will give
us a most instructive address, and I have now great pleasure in calling
upon him to read his paper

The paper was then read.

The Chairman I find that the next item on the agenda is an address
by the Chairman, and I rise to express your feelings and to thank Mr
Gauba for his very excellent paper It is full of new thoughts and new
ideas. We might not perhaps agree with all be says, but, at any rate,

India and the League of Nations 441

it provides us with food for reflection, and I am sure we are very grateful
to him for the great care he has taken and the amount of work which
it must have taken to prepare so very interesting and instructive a
document

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I will not take up your time more than a
few minutes, but there are one or two points which we hope to discuss
at this meeting, and, if I may say so, I think it is a very fortunate
choice of a subject for discussion — the position of India with regard to
the League of Nations

- I do not think any subject is of greater importance, especially at
this time when the whole future of the League of Nations appears to
be m the melting pot Mr Gauba has told us in his paper that in India
there is a good deal of apathy towards what we call “ foreign affairs I am
afraid that is true, not only of India, but of a great many other countries
in the world and, perhaps, only too true of our own country We
know that before the war foreign affairs were regarded as the special
preserve of the Foreign Office, the diplomatist, and a few distinguished
individuals who were supposed to know all about our relationships with
the peoples of other countries The ordinary person in the street, even an
ordinary member of Parliament, was not supposed to know anything about
the subject If the war has taught us anything at all, it has taught
us that the interests of every citizen and every elector in the country, his
whole future and his own personal interests are indissolubly bound up
with the question of what is called “ foreign policy which is simply our
relationship, as a people, with the peoples who inhabit other countries
in the world There is no very great mystery about it The people
of this country and every other country ought to understand, and ought
to try and understand, the principles upon which the conduct of foreign
affairs is to be earned on in their names and on their behalf They
should gam a clear understanding and impress that understanding upon
their respective Governments, in order that we may secure in the future a
more intelligent interest in all that appertains to our foreign relationships
I sincerely hope that that will also be the case in India in spite of the
fact that our friend here tells us that up to now Indians have been more
engrossed in their home affairs than in their relationships with other
peoples abroad

I should like to make two observations, if I may, with regard to this
question of India and the League of Nations The first is, that some
people tell us — and I suppose they have very good authority for doing so
— that Ir^dia is not a nation, but a group of nations, and that India will
never be a nation I do not know how much there is to be said for that
point of view, but, at any rate, we have an absolute fact before us at the
present moment — that is, that India has been recognized as a nation in
the Covenant of the League. India has been singled out as one of the
countries which is to have representatives upon the Assembly of the League
I agree with Mr Gauba that that is a great outstanding fact, and one which
should thrill the people of India with pnde They have been definitely
recognized m the Covenant, and the responsibility of sending their

442

India and the League of Nations

nominees to represent them on the League is one which is definitely laid
down m the Covenant

The second point is this We know that the Covenant of the League
of Nations has introduced what is called a “ mandatory system ” I do not
know that the mandate is the only instrument or organization by which
international control can be exercised I do not think it is , but, at any
rate, it is one of the methods which have been laid down m the Covenant
for dealing with those countries which are thought to be in a position
to be unable to govern themselves Certain countnes have been definitely
assigned the duties of acting as trustees for those peoples As I under
stand it, the object is gradually to create the necessary conditions whereby
these peoples may, in course of time — it may be a long process — but in
course of time may be able to manage their own affairs and may become
self governing communities That means, it seems to me, that what has
hitherto been known as the right of conquest has been, once and for all,
abolished I he right of conquest has been repudiated in the provisions of
the Covenant, and I should have thought that all were prepared to
realize that condition of things as far as other countnes are concerned.
The same principle in reality applies to our position in regard to India
We can only regard ourselves as trustees for the interests, welfare,
prosperity and progress of the peoples of India.

I think that theory is definitely recognized in Mr Montagu’s Bill, which
seeks to set up a progressive system whereby, m the future, the time will
arrive when the people of India will become a self governing community

Those are two points on which I think it would be very interesting to
have a discussion this afternoon Another matter which I want to mention
is this There are a great many of us who believe that no League of
Nations can become a reality, or ever become a success, or can ever
achieve the objects for which the Covenant has been drawn up, unless
working side by side in every country which becomes a member of the
League is a great voluntary organization which will protect the principles
of the League, and carry on a violent propaganda, a strenuous propaganda,
in order to mould public opinion, when necessary, on behalf of the
principles and the work of the League of Nations In this country there
is an organization called the League of Nations Union It is a purely
voluntary society, which embraces all the political parties in the country.
The duty of this association is to try and instil into the minds of the
people of this country the principles and the basis upon which the League
of Nations rests, by creating branches in different parts of the country, by
enrolling members, by lectures, public meetings, and by other forms of
propaganda We hope that, in course of time, not only hundreds and
thousands, but millions of our fellow-countrymen will be definitely
enrolled as protagonists of the League If the opportunity arises, and if
by any chance the day comes when the interests of the League are
menaced, those supporters will rise as one man to protect and assist the
League of Nations, and to bring the necessary pressure to bear upon
whatever Government is in office at that time.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this Society has already endeavoured to

India and the League of Nations

443

form a liaison with similar associations in America, France, Italy, Serbia,
and in many other countries in the world In all those countries similar
organizations exist for this very purpose We think it would be of in
estimable value if a similar voluntary organization also existed in the
Dominions and in the Great Empire of India It is only by bnngiug
home to the Indian people themselves the functions of the League of
Nations and its mission in the world, by educating them up to the standards
of the League, by informing them of what the League is doing, by
focussing public opinion in India and other countries, and by working m
the closest co-operation with similar societies in other countries, that we
can ensure that the people of India will be on the side of the League
As we have been told by the Lecturer, this is a critical time in the history
of his country This is a tune when new forces are beginning to work,
when strong inducements will be held out to ignore the ideals of the
League and to embark on Chauvinistic and other cimpaigns

Mr Gauba mentioned the example of Japan It appears to me that
Japan and the other countries which are situated in very much the same
position as India are at the parting of the ways Ihey can either go the
way of the League of Nations or embark upon an Imperialistic policy
which will take them in an opposite direction I herefore I would a^k
whether it may not be possible for your Association to co operate with the
League of Nations Union, or any other Society, to assist in the establish
ment of a voluntary organization in India to work for the principles of the
League, and to educate and mould public opinion in favour of the
Covenant, with all its provisions and principles Such an organization
would strengthen the bonds which already bind the people of this country
to the people of India, and would place the League of Nations on a much
firmer and much more lasting foundation than it has hitherto been able to
secure I feel sure, if some acti m of that sort could be inaugurated, that
Mr Gauba would be well requited for all the trouble he has taken in
elaborating the very excellent paper which he has read to us this afternoon.
(Hear, hear, and applause )

General Cherep Spiridovitch said that m 1913, m his book, “ Vers la
Ddbdcle," he had foretold the Great War in all its details, and after that
he began to think how it could be avoided He wrote another book
entitled "L’Umon des Blancs,” which means “The Union or League of
the White Races, ’ and had it sent to all the Senators, Deputies, and
editors in France People would not believe him when he told them that
war was imminent In November be sent some scores of telegrams to
statesmen and editors in this country, pointing out again that war was
imminent, unless Austria would grant independence to Poland, Bohemia,
Croatia, and Hungary, and receive in compensation some of those billions
which would be uselessly spent in this war.

Lord Roberts was the only person among the many great people in this
country who answered that he believed the General’s statements.

With reference to the Lecturer's statement regarding the number of
native princes who should be represented in the League, the Geoend
thought they would be better engaged in playing football, because the

444 India and the League of Nations

League i* only a “ Rotten Parapet ” <the Morning Post), and it u would
not become effective before five years,” as its great enthusiast, M. Albert
Thomas — ex Minister of France— has confessed

But, in the General’s opinion, the League would not be effective for
fifty years And F ngland's foes would not wait, maybe, even five months

To create at once an effective bulwark against war, a union between
English speaking, Latin, and Slav nations is indispensable, and such com
bination was also the ideal of his old fnends — Clemenceau and Theodore
Roosevelt

The actual League of Nations was to be transferred to Geneva, where
only, say, 50 clerks — all C3 men — would be sent from this country, and
not a single Ai Englishman among them From the General’s own
knowledge and experience, it would not be very long before those entirely
inexperienced individuals found themselves surrounded by, say, 5,000 anti-
British agents

The League of Nations would undoubtedly be a wonderful thing if only
people would know the truth about those mysterious forces which really
rule the world, and in whose hands nearly all the Prime Ministers are
mere puppets

The League would be a great ideal organization if only it resulted in the
secret diplomacy of those so-called “ titanic forces ’ being revealed
(Hear, hear )

The lecturer had said that Germany would be strong again in fifty years
In the General s opinion she would be strong again in a very short time,
and she is much stronger as a Power at the present moment than many
people suspect, because she can find in Russia innumerable soldiers and
unlimited resources Because of those titanic forces, Germany is able
at any moment to recall, or beat, her own Bolsheviks in Russia — a “ black n
or " red ’ alliance

The lecturer suggested that Germany should be invited into the League
of Nations , but she may say that she had no wish to enter the League of
Nations , and Russia, because the Allies did not help her, may also refuse
that offer — to become a member of the League.

And supposing that Germany responded to this call, she would at once,
thanks to the above mentioned titanic forces, play the first violin and
soon become the conductor of the League The League, as it at present
exists, really consists of England isolated , with perhaps some few small and
insignificant Powers counterbalancing each other, because France — it
seemed to the General — may be paralyzed by Italy, who cannot forget her
lost jewels (Nice, Savoy, Corsica), if relations are not improved between
them by the pre war Anglo- Latino Slav League, which has transferred its
headquarters to London, the world’s Metropolis, and is reopening its
pre-war branches— fifty in Euro- Asia— and creating fifty new branches in the
three Americas, in order to prevent a renewed attempt of “ Deutschland
uber Alles "

With regard to Japan, it was obvious that a great Power was being
created by her constant increasing of armament and by a umon of Japan and
China, which might result in great danger to England, France, and Russia

India and the League of Nations 445

The Japanese yoke is very drastic — as was proved m Korea. God save
India from it '

The Japanese were already entering Siberia and may propose to China
the south of all Asia and even a new invasion into Europe, as was done in
1224 by a Mongolian conqueror, Baty, who plundered Russia, Austria and
Hungary, but was completely crushed by the Croatians— in 1241 at
Fiume.

No one seemed to realize that Europe, and first of all Italy, had been saved
in Fiume and by Croatians

The lecturer has mentioned the statements of that great Russian genius
Tolstoy, but he did not mention another still greater philosopher and thinker,
F Dostoyevsky, who had prophesied “The Jews will be the death of
Russia” — and they have destroyed this greatest of Empires

Now, since Mr Israel Zangwill has confessed that “the League of
Nations is a mission of the Jews,” one may be sure that the British Empire
would also be ruined by them in order to make for an “ Israel above All."

May God preserve India from this reign of unspeakable horror and ruin
which the Jews have established in Russia, unparalleled in history'

Mr I N Thakor said that the lecturer seemed to be very enthusiastic
about the League of Nations, but he had probably not heard Bernard
Shaw’s description of it. Many people were distrustful of it The weakest
point in the organization of the League of Nations was the non-recognition
of the principle of self determination. On the one side you had an
organization working for the peace of the world on the professed line of
self-determination, and on the other side you had the mandated areas,
which was a new word for subjected areas If the League was to work
on the principle of self determination, the best way to deal with those
mandated countries would be to allow them to determine for themselves
their destinies The Chairman referred to Mr. Montagu’s scheme as a very
successful first step. He ventured to disagree , so far as he saw it was a
total failure, and under the new circumstances arising — Rowlatt Act,
Amritsar atrocities, and the question of Constantinople — he felt it would fail
altogether In regard to the step to take mandated India up to self-
government, if India took a different view from England on the score of
its inadequacy, where was the machinery to settle this difference? If
countries differed, the best way was to bring in a disinterested third
party, and not to decide by voters among whom there were interested voters.
The League of Nations had not provided for that disinterested machinery
In regard to the representation given to the different countries, he wished to
nuse a strong protest in opposition to the lecturer’s remarks about the
lecogmtion granted to the native rajahs. Jn 1857 they perpetrated
brutalities, and even to-day, with the exception of the Gaekwar of Baroda,
they were callous to the interests of their people and repressive. He
thought they did not deserve to be rewarded with a vote in the face of
such a record, but their subject did. To give them separate re-
presentation was to raise a suspicion in the minds of Nationalist India to
the effect that an Ulster was being raised in India, and that the British
Government was using the rajahs against the ruing Indian democracy.

446

India and the League of Nations

Hi* time being up, the speaker’* remarks were closed prematurely
Miss Wileman said they had all listened with great interest to the
remarks of the Chairman and to the paper read by the lecturer What
struck one most was that at the heart and core and root of the League
of Nations was a growing unity and opinion of enlightened democracy that
the quarrels and contentions, the acrimony and dissension of the Old
World, must pass away and in the New World which was now seeing
light, differences could no longer be settled by the old barbarous, devas
tating and ruinous methods of the sword, gunpowder, machine guns, aero
plane, tank, and submarine When they appealed to the people of Britain —
labour, capital, consumers, Government and other interests — to meet round
a common board to discuss with unimpassioned fairness and a strong desire
for the good of the community as a whole those great problems of industrial
and commercial conditions — when they found that such a state of affairs
was not only coming into being but was really giv ng birth to good results
could not they go a step further and ask that the nations of the world, the
small as well as the large, coloured as well as white, should join around
a larger and more international board in dealing with the great and
vexed problems in a fair, impartial, just and humane spirit? In her
opinion the growth and fostering of that principle, whether one be
Tory, Bernard Shawite or Indian Nationalist, must be the force which
moved one in hoping and yearning that the old bad days were a thing
of the past, and that out of that terrible five years of war one might see the
dawn of a new day, new emotions, new ideals and new standards of
conduct which should reign satisfactorily over the world which was now
before them (Hear, hear, and applause )

Lady Katharine Stuart, m thanking the lecturer for his excellent
paper, said she would like to take the opportunity of delivering a message
from Dr Pollen, in which he stated he was shortly coming over to England,
and had asked her to say a few words with regard to the subject of the
lecture He wished her to point out how almost preposterous it was
to hope that the League would be really satisfactory until the peoples of
the various nations could be placed in a position to understand one
another readily, and to that end they should have an international language,
easily understood by all and he therefore asked her to try and enlist their
sympathies in favour of Esperanto She believed there was a wonderful
future before the Esperanto movement French was the language of
diplomacy, but French could never be the language of all the peoples
of the world If people would give some little attention to the Esperanto
movement, they would find there was a great deal more in it than they had
hitherto supposed By means of Esperanto men could get into touch
with men, and Government with Government, and they could all help
by taking an interest in the subject It could be used as a vehicle for
spreading a knowledge of religion amongst the different peoples of the
world f and if they believed m the efficacy of the Gospel to save the world,
they ought to take the most speedy and most thorough method of getting
it known throughout Asia as well as throughout Europe. (Hear, hear )

( Some exception having been taken to the foregoing remarks, it is here

India and the League of Nations

447

suggested that Christian perfection surely requires a consensus of the
councils and services of “ all nations.” If we are really to M make disciples ”
of all nations, and they are to do service, they need a vehicle in which to
express their corporate consciousness , therefore it is surely just, reasonable,
and nght that there should be in use a general and international language
which was not the native tongue of any particular nation In no other
way could you attain to the perfection of fair play all round Esperanto is
in all respects “a good and perfect gift ' It has been well called “the
Latin of the democracy,” because by its help Government can get into
touch with Government and people with people all the world over It is
the perfect elimination of all self interest from the “counsels of the
saints ’ — K F S )

Mr Duncan Irvine said that he would like to propose a hearty vote
of thanks to the Chairman and Lecturer for what they had said and done
for them that afternoon (Hear, hear and applause)

Colone 7 Terry seconded the proposition, which was carried with
acclamation

The Lecturer, in reply, said there were just one or two matters he
would like to clear up First of all was the question of the representation
of the Native States, which had evidently created some sensation One
gentleman said the rajahs ought to be left alone to play football, and another
said they had been guilty of oppression and therefore did not deserve
representation He would point out that the Native States in India con-
stituted about one third of the country, and they surely could not omit
those people from a voice in the League The feeling of democracy
had spread amongst those people, and they surely could not keep out the
Native States The point was to give them some sort of representation now

With regard to the question of self determination, the league at the
outset did not desire to encroach upon what was known as the “sovereign
right of states,” nor did it desire to encroach upon what was considered to
be their own internal affairs, but the League was a beginning, and
impatience must be surely deplorable However, under Article ix, all
questions, internal and otherwise, were declared to be a matter of concern
for the League There lay the hope of subject peoples Even if it
eventually resulted in republics, the principle of self-determination would
before long be applied to all subject peoples That was the only solution.

Then, with regard to Constantinople, that was a question which revealed
to some extent the awakening interest of the people of India in foreign
affairs For the first time in the history of modern India the people had
exerted an influence in international politics in regard to Constantinople.
Although personally he differed as to the future of Constantinople, he was,
nevertheless, very pleased to see the people of India exert such an influence,
sod exert it successfully. The success of the League of Nations un
doubtedly depended to a great extent upon individual effort, and it was for
each of them to go forth into the world as apostles of the new creed and
to preach the gospel of the League of Nations. (Hear, hear.)

The Chairman suitably replied to the vote of thanks, and the proceed
mgs then terminated.

44 »

TAMIL PROVERBS: A KEY
TO THE LANGUAGE AND TO THE MIND
OF THE PEOPLE

By Sydney Gordon Roberts, i.c.s. (retd.)

The most famous composer, compiler, and comparer of
proverbs, King Solomon, has given, as the objects of those
which he collected :

“To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the
words of understanding ; to receive the instruction of
wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity ; to give subtilty
to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.”

Those who have a less high opinion of the value of the
proverb may, perhaps unconsciously, be of the party of
that distinguished wit the famous Lord Chesterfield, who
held that a proverb should never be uttered in the conver-
sation of a gentleman, as being, I suppose, a mark of
rusticity.

We in India, at any rate, the strangers that sojourn in
the land, cannot afford to be so squeamish, and we should
do wisely to take the view of the King rather than that of
the courtier. Solomons proverbs are recorded as being
3,000 in number. The largest printed collection of Tamil
proverbs extant when I left India, in November, 1918,
gave 9,417 (nine thousand four hundred and seventeen) ;
and the learned compiler of that “ Dictionary of Tamil
Proverbs,” the Rev. Doctor John Lazarus, informed me
once that he had got 2,000 or so more ready to be published
in a second edition. The Rev. P. Percival, in the second
edition of “Tamil Proverbs with English Translations,”
gives 6,156, and the late Reverend Herman Jensen, of the
Danish Mission, gives only 3,644 (three thousand six

Tamil Proverbs

449

hundred and forty-four), but his edition has invaluable
cross-references, and the “ Index of the First Word of Each
Proverb” is followed by “An Index of Non-Initial Words
from the Body of the Proverb.’* These indexes and the
classification, in a preliminary index, of the Tamil proverbs
under 350 English headings, give Jensen’s “ Classified
Collection of Tamil Proverbs,” published in 1897, a peculiar
value and interest. At the same time Lazarus’s “ Diction-
ary ” has the charm of copiousness, and gives numerous
variants and doublets, among which the student has the
pleasure of choosing the one which his knowledge of the
Tamil language and the Tamil country leads him to think
must be the oldest or the most generally acceptable form.

The mention of the Tamil country reminds me that the
extent of it cannot be better defined than by a Tamil
saying. The country lies, I may say, in the Southern half
of the Madras Presidency of India, and in nine words :

“ Kudakam kunaga kadal kumari tiruvengadam, InnSngu Tamizb
n&ttin ellai.”

(That is, " Coorg, the Bay of Bengal, Cape Comorin and Tirupati, these
four [are] the bounds of the Tamil country.”)

To many of my audience these are the first words of the
Tamil language that have fallen on their ears; to others
they awake memories grave and gay. In my own opinion,
though the word “ Tamil ” means “ sweet,” that is the only
complimentary epithet that cannot be applied to the
language ; it is rich, copious, and extraordinarily exact and
flexible.

I do not pretend it is so copious as Chinese or Arabic.

I am sincerely grateful that is not the case ; although one
arises from a study of the Tamil dictionary with the
impression that, in the poetical form of the language, no
self-respecting Tamil noun fails to signify, according to the
context, “a beautiful woman; a peacock; a particular
preparation of arsenic.”

Before leaving the subject of the relative value of these

45 ° Tamil Proverbs: a Key to the Language

collections of Tamil proverbs I think it is only fair to say
that 1 believe Percival was first in the field ; his collection
is beautifully printed and most wisely annotated. Both
his introduction and that of Jensen show clearly how an
intimate knowledge of the Tamil mind, such as is obtainable
by the study of the Tamil proverbs, had produced, in the
Englishman as well as in the Dane, a sincere regard,
affection, and respect for the Tamil people ; and that is, I
firmly believe, the invariable result of studying these
wonderfully diversified gems and jewels from the wisdom
of the East.

It is for this reason that I think it is the positive duty of
those who have to do, or will have to do, with Tamil people
to study Tamil proverbs. The very first introduction to
them can be obtained from that charming little Tamil
manual, “ Inge Va” ( i.e ., “ Come here”), a splendid guide
to planting conversation that is published at the Times of
Ceylon Press, at Colombo.

My kind friend Mr. J. Leybourne Davidson first gave
me a copy in 1900, and I learned by the copy of (I think)
the fourteenth edition, which I bought in 1918, how much
this manual had been extended and improved since it first
came out.

I do not propose in this paper to give anything like a
large number of examples of Tamil proverbs ; it is easier to
be exhausting than exhaustive. At the same time, one’s
own little discoveries possess a keener interest than the
beaten country ; and what I have observed, or think I have
observed, or at least recorded, for the first time may
perhaps have a greater claim on the indulgent audience
before me than a repetition of what other people have set
down. I propose, therefore, to include some of my own
treasure-trove in the specimens of Tamil proverbs given in
this paper, as well as some of the most delightfully typical
of those in the printed collections.

I cannot claim' to have recorded 3,000 proverbs; but,
then, in wisdom I do not attempt tff compete with King

451

and to the Mind of the People

Solomon ! 1 will only say that for some years I have held

that one of the reasons why Solomon is regarded as one of
the wisest men who ever lived was because he had studied
proverbs so much, in which the wisdom of the East lies
stored in quintessence.

My own private collection of Tamil proverbs amounts to
only 367 (three hundred and sixty-seven), “ be the same a
little more or less,” as lawyers put it in documents ; but
anyone who has gone proverb-hunting, or who will go
proverb-hunting in the future, knows, or will soon learn,
how hard it is to flush the game when found, and will also be
reminded continually of Captain Cuttle’s saying, “ The
bearing of which obserwation lies in the application of it.”

It is in the explanation of the use and bearing and
“ true inwardness ” of Tamil proverbs that the encyclo-
paedic Dr. John Lazarus, whose “Dictionary” has a
preface which forms a wonderful treatise on the subject, is
so very unsafe as a guide. Here is a man born in the
country ; of unwearied patience and application, which will
be acknowledged by all who have occasion to roam and
root about in the comfortable truffle-forest which his
“Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs” displays; yet the innate
difficulty of the subject is such that even Dr. Lazarus has
not really seized the meaning of the proverb in hundreds
and hundreds of cases.

The fact is, one may go for months before one gets to
the bottom of some of these proverbs ; Tamil people use
them, but in ninety cases out of a hundred they cannot
explain them. Anything like philological or etymological
research or enquiry is a mere weariness to the flesh to the
bulk of the people one comes across in ordinary circum-
stances ; and, moreover, they do not know the limits of
their questioner’s knowledge, and so leave unexplained the
very points which would clear up the whole matter.

The very last of my discoveries in the way of Tamil
proverbs at least emphasizes the fact that all Indians are
not necessarily vegetarians. Up in Bengal the earnest

452 Tamil Proverbs: a Key to the Language

Bible woman, explaining the story of the Prodigal Son,
may have to turn the fatted calf into “ five different kinds
of curry but in Southern India there are millions of people
who eat meat and fish. What gusto and enjoyment of
good things there is in the proverb

11 Sell your house and buy a shad 1
Sell your cow and buy a mullet !”

(“ Vittai vittru ullam vingukirathu
Mattai vittru raadavai v&ngukirathu.”)

I first heard this at Cuddalore, South Arcot, from District
Court Translator N. Jeyarama Chetti-yar, who was ex-
plaining to Dr. Whitehead, the Bishop of Madras, all
about the two images of a fish with gaping mouth,
bearing Madura Minakshi with her consort, in the
Madurai Minakshi temple on the sea-shore close to
Fort St. David. These fish are the ullam which my
lamented friend Henry Wilson, Conservator of Fisheries,
told me, in 1912 or so, he had conclusively proved
to be the same as the American shad, whose very
name, Alosa sapidissima , “ the most tasty Alosa,” has an
echo of the triumphant appreciation of the Tamil proverb.
The Bishop was inclined to believe that the great Minakshi,
or “ Fish-eyed Lady,” the goddess of Madura, is really a
prehistoric fish-goddess, dating back to the time when the
Vaigai bar was open and Vaigai, on the Madura coast, was
the Pandyan king’s trading emporium at the river mouth.
The translator, a Madura man, laid great stress on the
deliciousness of the ullam , as shown by the proverb ; also
that it was anadromous in its habits, and was only stopped
by anicuts (that is dams) and other barriers, below which it
grows most fat and delicious. I learned from him
afterwards that its sinai, or roe (which he says is double), is
the great delicacy, I now learn that precisely the same is
true of the shad. All this confirms the identity of the shad
with the ullam^ and Henry Wilson, by elaborate arrange-
ments, was able to prove that, just as the shad has

and to the Mind of the People 453

been transferred from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, so
the ullam can be introduced into the Indian western sea,
which we call the Arabian Sea, from the eastern sea, which
is the Bay of Bengal. Thus the ullam and MinSkshi of
Madura, of remote antiquity, are connected with the gallant
Henry Wilson, who died of cholera, most sincerely mourned,
in 1916 or 1917, after a life spent in preserving and
increasing the food-supply of all the poor people of
Southern India.

This is not the only proverb about fishing.

11 Tundilkaranukku takkai mBl kan.”

(“ The angler’s eye is on his float ”)

That is, “ Everyone is most interested in his own affairs/'
or, as Dessauer told Fanny Kemble, about the time when
the first railway was opened, “ Je m’interesse extremement
aux choses qui me regardent,” one of the neatest defences
of egoism with which I am acquainted.

It is these brief little proverbs which are the most
charming and the easiest to remember. I am particularly
fond of:

41 Palukkum kaval punaikkum tozhan ”

{** Guard over the milk, but also a friend of the cat's ”),

which signifies, of course, hunting with the hounds and
running with the hare. This particular proverb illustrates
very well how proverbs help one to a true pronunciation of
Tamil and a proper rhythm in speaking. They enable
one in a simple expeditious way to learn to keep one's
footing on the swaying slack-wire of an ordinary Tamil
sentence. Tamil can afford so many words which have an
absolute perspective, like the German word described — and
illustrated — in Mark Twain’s “Tramp Abroad,” that it
is extremely hard for a beginner not to trip up and crash
down into meaningless syllables, just when a change in the
Indian hearer’s expression is giving the speaker strong
hopes that the man is getting a glimmering of an idea of

454 Tamil Proverbs : a Key to the Language

what is meant. Not a very clear idea, perhaps, but like
the

“ Something distinctly resembling a tune ”

of the Scotch piper in the “ Bab Ballads,”

“ Palukkum kival punaikkum tOzhan.”

You can hear the rise and fall of the scansion ; it can easily
be demonstrated on a blackboard ; and with the help of a
few hundred of such proverbs one could train the learner's
ear and tongue until even the railway- station name
Perumatnayyakanpalaiyam does not strike terror to him in
the way it has petrified hundreds of English travellers on
their journey to a holiday on the Nilgiri Hills. Many
Tamil proverbs refer to, or are explained by, ancient folk-
stories. Many years ago, when I was visiting Arcot, where
Clive’s sepoys offered to live on the rice-gruel, giving the
English soldiers the boiled rice (do you know, by the way>
how that was possible ?) I made the acquaintance of
Pandit S M. Natesa Sastriar. He said to me, “ You talk
Tamil pretty well, but if you really want to master col-
loquial Tamil, you ought, ‘though I says it as shouldn’t,’ to
read my collection of folk-stories, ‘ Purva Kala Kadaigal * —
i.e., ‘Tales of Ancient Days.’” I took his advice and
benefited by it very greatly ; and from it I learned such
sayings as

“ Dipam Lakshmikaram ”

(“The lamp is the hand of Good Luck ”),

and

“ Chokka, chokka, sor ’undd ?

Choliyfin vanthu keduttanda ”

(“ Chokka, Chokka, is there any nee ?
The Cboriy&n came and spoilt it, lad ”),

with the stories which illustrate and explain these and
similar proverbs, the two I have mentioned emphasizing
the benefit and necessity of having a light burning at night>
especially at mealtime, else devils will come and snatch away
the food.

and to the Mind of the People

455

One very impressive story explains the saying :

" Pichaikkiranukku vaittu v»i.'*

(“ Put it by for the beggar.")

When little Tamil children enjoy something very much
at supper and want their mother to keep some over for
breakfast, they are not allowed to say, “ Put it by for me,”
but, “ Put it by for the beggar and the story tells how a
rich man was preparing, just as in the parable, to pull down
his barns and build greater, when Death laughed aloud and
appeared in the form of a serpent to end his life, after telling
him that we receive each day’s existence from God as
a beggar receives alms. And so from this uir-pichchai ,
“the Alms of Life,” comes the use of “pichchaikaran ” in
the proverbial saying.

I am also very fond of a proverb which I found in Jensen.
It is another way of saying that everyone has his own point
of view :

“ Kuttadi kizhakke parttan
Kulikkaran merkke parttan.”

(“ The actor watched the East ;

The day-labourer watched the West.”)

Indian plays go on all night, so that the European
spectator generally has to go off to bed, more than half
dead, just as they are getting to the exciting climax of the
play. For this reason the Indian actor watches the East,
to see when the sun is going to rise and let him go home,
whereas the day-labourer watches for sunset, so that he may
stop work, get his pay, buy his provisions, and cook his
supper.

This proverb introduces us to our indispensable, but
somewhat trying, friend the cooly, or, to give him his full
name, the kuhyal, or kulikkaran. If one alters the words,
“ The hireling fleeth because he is an hireling,” into, “ The
cooly fleeth because he is a cooly,” one gets the full
meaning of the English, and discovers that in India, from
the most ancient times, the faults of the hireling, or cooly,

456 Tamil Proverbs : a Key to the Language

were just as much evident as in Palestine of old, and in
some nearer countries at a less distant date. I may
mention that “ kali ” means “ hire,” so “ kalikkaran ” means
“he who works for hire,” just as “ pichchaikaran,” in the
proverb already quoted, means, “ he who receives alms.” I
suppose “ kar ” is the same root as the old Scotch word
“gar,” “to make,” “to do”; but I have not had an oppor-
tunity of verifying this.

In Madura I came across a remarkable proverb —

“Stupiyihrunthu kuthikkirfin endru shonnavan tfingi ponan&m
Vazhiyil pogira parppan pSrttu vandikkatti kondanam ”

(“The man who aaid, ‘I will leap from the pinnacle,’ fell asleep,
they say ,

“ The wayfaring parson, seeing it, yoked up his cart [bulls], they say.”)

It appears that in ancient days, when there was danger of
a temple being looted, one of the priests would climb the
gopuram, or temple tower, and threaten to throw himself
down and be killed, so that the guilt of his death might
attach to the robbers. The mere threat was generally
sufficient. But there is a legend that at the temple (which
I have visited several times) at Tiruparankundram, two
and a half miles W.S.-W. of Madura, an English force
arrived, more than a century ago, and were about to
desecrate the temple in spite of the remonstrances of the
priests. Thereupon a man did cast himself from the lofty
wedge-shaped gopuram, or temple tower, and was killed.
The English (so the legend goes), realizing what a spirit
of fanaticism would be aroused, stayed their hand The
rock beneath which this temple stands and the gflpuram
in question are illustrated in the South Indian Railway
guide-book.

In the actual proverb there is a reference to a story of a
man who offered to take the leap somewhere, but his heart
failed him, and he pretended to fall asleep ; whereupon the
priest thought it high time to pack up. And some people
say that the priest was afraid the guilt of homicide would
fall on him, so he selfishly went off instead of going to try

457

and to the Mind of the People

and take the sleeper down. However that may be, the
proverb exemplifies a grammatical point of the highest
importance in Tamil, viz., the possession of a relative form
of the verb, which takes a little time to master, but, once
learnt, is a great help in composition and conversation.
There are also verbal nouns which have a singular and
plural and have masculine, feminine and neuter forms.
Here we have the simplest relative verb form “pogira,”
“who is going,” a neat abbreviation for “poy-kkond-
iruntha," “who was going." I only mention this in
passing, and add that "of the people who were not beaten ”
can be conveniently — if not briefly !— expressed in Tamil
by the polysyllable " adikkapadathavargaludaiya,” which
may be rendered "which belongs to them that did not
suffer beating." Another word we meet in this proverb
is "pSrppan,” literally " seer ” but a colloquial and not very
respectful name for “ Brahmin," rather like the English
use of "parson.” But the feminine form of the word is
the delightful Tamil word for "butterfly,” which is called
a parpdrtti on account of the gay silk dresses Brahmin
ladies wear.

A very common proverb is :

“ Kuzhukku mdngay ttfrkkuma.”

(“ Will the mango yield to the gruel ?”)

It does not seem so very long ago since I had the honour
of serving under our Honorary Secretary as his Sub-Collector
and Joint Magistrate, at Vellore in North Arcot district,
and he knows as much about " kQzh,” or ragi gruel, as I
do, probably even more. But for those who do not know
the Tamil country, of which North Arcot forms the extreme
northern end, I should explain that this ragi gruel plays a
most important part in the domestic economy of the
ordinary villagers. It is made of ragi flour boiled with
water into a thick paste and kept until it ferments and has
an acid taste. It is only ready for eating eighteen to
twenty hours after it is made. Although not agreeable to

45 8 Tamil Proverbs : a Key to the Language

our taste, it is a splendid food, especially valuable as it can
be given, in small quantities, to people who are more than
half-starved without risk of making them ill, and it is
therefore one of the staple foods prepared in the kitchens
of famine camps. When people can afford it they add
"noy,” or broken rice, to the “kuzhu,” and this is the case
round the splendid Dusi-Mamandur tank (or reservoir)
near Conjeeveram, which is a proof of a higher standard of
living in those parts. The proverb shows that it would be
absurd for the humble gruel to place itself on the level of
the mango pickle on account of their common acidity, and
it may refer also to the fact that mango pickle is a luxury
of the well-to-do, whereas the gruel is the staple of the
common labouring classes.

It is time, however, to strike a higher note. I think the
following proverb is as fine an acknowledgment of Pro-
vidence as I have ever met, in a rather quaint form :

“ Kallukkul teraiyai kappZlttravillaiya.”

(“Did He not preserve the toad within the rock ?”)

One has only to be among the Tamil people at a time of
undeserved misfortune to see what uncomplaining faith and
trust really are. Such calamities as a fire that has burnt
down half a village, or a flood that has burst the reservoir
on which their crops depend, constantly reveal the fine
qualities of heart and mind which crystallize into their best
proverbs. Of course there is plenty of rustic sarcasm.
When the Tamil wishes to say that all men are liars, he
observes :

“Kurang 'el lira oru mu ham.”

(“ All monkeys have one face.”)

But against this we may fairly set the delicious proverb,
familiar to all students of Inge Va, that is, to a vast majority
of planters in Ceylon and the Malay States ;

“ Kurangukkum tan kutti poo katti.”

(*< Even to the monkey its own baby is a golden baby.”)

459

and to the Mind of the People

The monkey figures pretty often in the TamU proverbs,
as it does in the high Tamil version of the immortal
Panchatantra, the original (I believe) of Pilpay’s Fables.

For instance :

“ Seniyanukku y€n kurangu.”

(«« should a weaver keep a monkey ?”)

It would only damage his work.

Another proverb, on compulsion, lets us into some of the
secrets of animal training in its simplest form :

“ Tadi Sda kurangu Sdum.”

(“ As the stick dances the monkey will dance.”)

The dog does not always come out well in Indian
proverbs. His value as a sentinel is well recognized, and
he is extremely well treated by shepherds, but in the
generality of cases the dog appears as a yelping cur,
bringing annoyance, defilement, and even a sign of death
wherever he goes.

The dog enters so much, and so differently, into English
life and thought that to recapitulate a few Tamil proverbs
illustrates very remarkably the difference between the
villagers’ point of view and ours, though they recog-
nize, as another proverb shows, the difference between the
squire s dog and their own.

Our first one is the most common :

“Na>ai kkandal kallai kkanSra
Kallai kkandal nayai kk&nora.”

" If we see a dog we can’t see a stone,

And if we see a itone we can't see a dog.”)

One never finds things when one wants them is the
meaning of the proverb ; because in India one stoops down
to pick up a stone to drive a dog away, and the mere act of
stooping is often sufficient

But here is a more kindly proverb, about fussy people :

“ N&ykku velaiyum Ulai
Nirkkiratharku nSramum illai.”

( M The dog has no work [to do] and no time to stop.”)

460 Tamil Proverbs: a Key to the Language

I think that shows a very nice observation. So does the
next one :

“ Nayai valarttu naragalum varuvanen T
(“ When I keep a dog why should I come crawling myself?”)

This strikes me as even better than our version, “ keep-
ing a dog and barking oneself.” This proverb is also an
illustration of a most important idiom, the way we express
" Why should I ?” “ Why should he ?” and so on, in Tamil.
The particle “yen” (-“why”) is added to the third
person masculine future of a verb, and according to the
pronoun employed one knows whether it is “Why should
I ?” or “ Why should she ?” and so forth. The origin of the
idiom puzzles me, because the verb is, invariably, the third
person masculine future, whatever the pronoun. But
though I never understood the origin of the form, I have
found it quite indispensable to idiomatic conversation.
If one really is to talk Tamil, one cannot afford to be
without it.

The next three proverbs — all about dogs — illustrate
splendidly the proper way to vary the position of the
interrogative -a in the sentence according to the exact shade
of meaning. It underlines that particular word.

For instance :

“ Nayaditta duttu kulaichchi kanpikkirathu.”

(“Ought you to bark as you show your penny-fee for dog-lulling ?”)

“ N&yfi singattirku nerpattam kattukirathu.”

(“ Is a dog to tie a decoration on the lion ?”)

" Nayttl iguml kokkai pidikka.”

(“ Will a dog succeed in catching paddy-birds ?*')

It is the ability to place the interrogative particle
idiomatically that makes the difference between proficiency
and hesitation in Tamil speaking. Yet it can be learned
with absolute precision from Tamil proverbs, and with the
same unfailing memory which, when I suddenly observe,

Common are to either sex,'

46 1

and to tfu Mind of the People
spurs on most of the men in my audience to reply

“ Artifex and opifex.”

The Tamil proverbs offer as complete a key, and one as
easily learned, to all possible forms of Tamil prose syntax
as is provided by the illustrations to the syntax in the dear
old Latin primer. Moreover, they are so neat, compact,
and pithy, that they can be driven into the mind as
immovably as the jingling rhymes, in the same book, fix
the masculines and feminines in the youthful memory.

I believe that this discovery of the use of Tamil proverbs
as a key to the language and its pronunciation is absolutely
and entirely my own. I think this is an appropriate place
in my paper to make the claim, and I do so very deliber-
ately, with a comfortable feeling that, so far as the Tamil
language is concerned, no one is very likely to challenge
my priority. It is true that I only began to study Tamil
proverbs on Monday, October 15, 1906, when I had only
twelve more years to serve ; and that six of those years
were spent out of the Tamil country ; but my interest in
the subject has grown steadily, and as I ended my service
as Judge of a Tamil district I was able to extend my
vocabulary very considerably, and to quicken my powers of
comparing and working up the few materials that I had
gathered myself, and the vast stores that Percival, Jensen,
and Lazarus had laid up for me and for anyone else who
likes to wander over the same province of study.

As there may be language students among my audience,
or among those who may have the courage to read this
paper in print, I will let them into a secret There are few
more engrossing hobbies than collating, cross-referencing,
and writing up notes in books, in their margin, and, when
that shows signs of repletion, in pages that have been
interleaved for one’s special delectation. There is only one
danger. One is extremely likely to develop hypertrophy
the grammatical sense. You remember how one’s
schoolmasters used to flinch and wince, and even groan, at

4<5a Tamil Proverbs : a Key to the Language

some particularly flagrant 41 howler”? I used to think
(Heaven forgive me 1) that this was mere affectation,
intended to impress the scholar with the vastness of the
master's learning. Alas, it is nothing of the sort 1 If one
only works hard enough at a language, even such a
refractory one as Tamil, there comes a time when one
begins to begin to know something about it; and then
hypertrophy of the grammatical sense is the agonizing
ailment which is almost certain to attack you ; and it
requires all one’s sense of humour to overcome it.

It is refreshing to find that among these proverbs are
many which show that the Tamils and ourselves have
many things in common. I had not been very long in
India before I found that toys and games had their fixed
seasons just as in England. I don’t know any Tamil
equivalent of “ Tops is in, marbles is out,” but the top-
season, the marble-season, and the kite-season — varying,
no doubt, as regards kites with different parts of the
Country — are much more distinct than the difference
between spring and summer. In fact, I had been eight
years in India before I recognized that there was such a
season as spring ; but then the Madras Presidency, or at
any rate, the Tamil country, does not mark the springtime
very clearly. As we find in the proverbs whatever is in
the life of the people, there are plenty of good proverbs
about tops. Here are a few *

“ Vallavan attina pambaram manalilum adum.”

(“ A top spun by a clever man will spin even in sand.”)

“ Kami ill&tha pambaram ”

(“ A top without a string ”),

as Jensen explains it, “A master is necessary every-
where.”

“ Uihuvukku oru suttrum var&thu, unnukku pambaram.”

(«* At ploughing he won’t plough a furrow, but for food he’a a top.”)

The Indian rice fields are subdivided to facilitate flooding,
so a round, 44 suttru,” may be rendered 44 furrow.”

and to the Mind of the People 463

“Adi Syintha pambaram.”

(“ A top that has done spinning ”)

Said of one who has been humbled.

My favourite top proverb is :

“ Manmatan avanai pambaramptfl attularin ”

(“ Cupid spins him like a top ”)

You remember, in Tennyson’s “ Palace of Art ”

“ And over hills with peaky tops engrailed,

'Twixt fields of com and nee.

The throne of Indian Cama slowly sailed
A summer fanned with spice "

Manmatan and Cupid and Cama are one and the same Of
course, being an Indian, Cama is a married man, with a
wife, Rati, and a father-in-law, the great god Siva ; and the
legend forms the subject of an annual festival, which I have
tried to describe in the Calcutta Review in 1902 or 1903, in
“ The Cama Mystery Play : a Study in Comparative
Dramatics.” But we must leave Cupid and his bow of
sugar-cane and his seven reed arrows, each tipped with a
different flower, and his bowstring of bees — I prefer that
idea to the swallow's chirp which the bowstring suggested
to the Greeks — and return to humbler themes.

It is the everyday life that is so hard for a foreigner to learn
— the little words, the little household customs and sayings ;
and it is precisely these which he will meet with in these
proverbs. And if he learns a little, and uses that little,
then he can learn a little for himself ; for in India, if one is
out fishing for information, you must bait the hook with a
little knowledge. Then people realize you are a learner,
not a scoffer, and will take a pride and a pleasure in
explaining their manners and customs.

So here is a household saying :

u Yedlkfldam pCdnSJ agsppai iOniyim mipp£n.”

(“ If you (peak haughtily 111 put a ipell on tbe ladle.”)

464 Tamil Preverbs: a Key to the Language

That is to say, “ You shan’t have any food ” ! This is said to
children, servants, or daughters-in-law ; the last-named have
had a doleful time of it since India was India, and when
that alters, India will be changed indeed, and changed
immeasurably for the better.

When people think that anything requires no further
proof, they say *

“ Kann£rak kandatarku yen agappai kun.”

(“For what one has seen with one's eyes, what needs the mark of the
ladle?”)

The conclusion is really a perfect little picture : the hut left
empty for a short time, some hungry person creeping in
and making a scoop at the hot boiled food, rice or cholam,
then dropping the prize, all steaming, into the front fold of
his or her cloth, and sticking the ladle back in the thatch
and going out, leaving the good wife to come and utter a
litany of shrieking curses on whoever has done it — a litany
so poignant that if the offender is a neighbour the sting of
the abuse overcomes the natural desire for concealment, and
in she rushes, and there is what may be called “ the father
and mother of a row.” Or the mark of the ladle may
betray the work of a child playing in the back garden
who has fraudulently anticipated supper-time —

“ Agappai kuraitt&l mattattarku varuvSn ”

(“ If you make his ladle smaller, he will come within bounds ”),

used of a froward child that needs management.

As the village artisans are very important in country life, we
meet them freely in these proverbs. Jensen gives ten about
barbers, whose services are constantly needed for mourning,
for vows — as in St. Paul’s case — and so on, as well as for
ordinary occasions. So one proverb says :

“Pudiya vann&num pozhaiya ampattanum tfidu.”

(“ Seek a new washerman and an old barber.”)

You may remember that Mark Twain in “ More Tramps
Abroad ” said that India was the only country where he’d

and to the Mind of tht PtopU 465

seen a man breaking stones with a shirt But perhaps you
may not know that in this, as in everything else, “ it is an
ill wind that blows nobody any good,” and that the more
rags he makes, the better the washerman can carry on
his trade of hereditary torch-maker to the little village
temple, or even some very important one. The rag-
torches, steeped in oil, give a soft orange light, and emit a
strong mouse-like smell, which is quite a feature of these
beautiful temple processions.

" Vala j5siyam, virutta vaidiyam. M
(“ Young astrology, old medicine.”)

That is, one should have a young astrologer and an old
doctor. The reason is explained in my friend Pandit S. M.
Natesa Sastri’s second book of folk-stories, “ Madiya Kala
Kadaigal.” Astrology depends on mathematical calculations,
which the young man will make more correctly than the old.

Another proverb, on the value of experience, is cast in an
odd form :

“ Kala panattai vida kizha pinam nalladu.”

(“ An old corpse is better than a bushel of money.”)

Indians distrust the judgment of young men, which is
a remarkable fact when one remembers how quickly people
mature in India. When a young fellow airs his opinion
they say :

“ Muttaiyil kokkirko kuvum kOzhi "

(“ A cock that crows in the egg ”),

or else :

" Tambi farttai vandiyile vaittu tan izhukka rendum.”

{“ Younger brother’s words must be put on a cart and dragged round
the town.")

In this, as in many other proverbs, one detects
44 Apt alliteration's artful aid.”

To go back to our washerman, a touching proverb tells
us that the poor have no time to be 01 :

VOL. XVI.

2 H

466 Tamil Proverbs: a Key to the Language

“ Vacn&nukku oGyu vanthil kali Ode.”

(“If a washerman hills sick [his sickness must leave him] at his
washing-stone.”)

Here the final ablative is very neat and subtle.

What people think about little children is a good guide to
their character. Judged by this standard the Tamils have
a most amiable disposition, as everyone knows who has
lived among them. I saw somewhere a proverb which I
have never heard used, but which is equal to anything that
can be said on the subject. I think it must come out of
some poem. I can only quote from memory :

“ Pattinidu yizhinidu enb&r
Pillaigalin konjal kslor.”

(“ * Sweet is song, sweet the lute,' will they alone say that have not
heard the prattle of children/')

So again :

"Kuzhandai pasiytf, k<5vfi pasiytf/’

(“ Is the infant or the temple [ever] hungry ?”)

As both are dear to all, neither will ever be in want Then
we have a rhyming proverb, which shows the thought of
the Tamils is just like that of the Jews of old. (I have
hit upon a rhyming translation which just fits the original.)

“ JSnpillai inilum Snpillai irukka vendum.”

(“ Though it be but a span-child, it must be a man-child.”)

“ Illatha vittirkku ilanjiyam.”

(“ A boon to the house that lacks it.”)

A mother of only one child will say :

“ TSngSykku roGndru kan enakku oru kan."

(“ The cocoanut has three eyes, I have but one/*)

And what could be better than the following ?

“ Tai m uham kinMha pillaiyum, maxhai muham kinitha pay i rum
uruppadithu/'

(“ A child that has not seen its mother's face, and a crop that has not
seen the free of rain, will not prosper.”) '

and to Ou Mind of the People

4*7

And then a touch of Eastern hyperbole :

44 POsamkkfiy *ttanai mutt a"

(" A pearl as big as a pumpkin.")

Could a child be praised more highly ? We can end the
subject of children with a rhyming proverb about dis-
obedience .

“Tay varttai kslatha pillai nay vayil silai ”

{" A child that will not listen to its mother is like a cloth in a dog's
mouth ’’)

— that is, marked out for destruction. We cannot, in the
space available, go through the whole moral world, nor
even the whole animal kingdom, but the span-child men-
tioned above reminds me of a super-excellent proverb
which I learned from the folk-story of J agatpu rattan, or
“ Turn-the-world-upside-down ” ; while the poor dhoby, or
washerman, has reminded me of his long-suffering donkey.
The first proverb stands quite by itself

“ Kosuvum tan kaiyil ette jan ”

(“ Even the mosquito is just eight of its own spans long ”)

The meaning is, everyone is of importance in his own
eyes. The idea of the span of a mosquito is exquisitely
ludicrous, and we find in the proverb a Tamil canon of
human symmetry

The donkey has a group of proverbs to himself. Through
all he is the homeless, unpitied drudge, very different from
his half-brother the mule, whose Tamil name “ koveruk-
azhudai” means ‘‘the donkey the king rides.” I shall
never forget how crushed I was one day, somewhere near
Arcot, when, on asking the innocent question, “What do
you give the donkey ?*’ I was answered in an indignant
chorus: “We never feed donkeys f I dare say there was
a lurking suspicion that my question was sarcastic, as “ to
graze donkeys” seems to mean, to be sent on a fool’s
errand, or, at any rate, something like our phrase “ to go
wool-gathering ” :

468 Tamil Proverbs a Key to the Language

“ Kazhudaikku paradesara kuttisuvar ”

(" To go to a ruined wall to graze is a pilgrimage to a donkey ”)

“ Kazhudai punnukku terupuzhudi marundu ”

(“ The street dust is medicine for a donkey’s sore ")

In this word “dust," puzhudt , , we have a link with our old
Norman judicial system the Court of Pie Powder, puds
poudreux, held at all our old fairs. Pie Powder in Tamil
i$ “ Puzhudi kal,” or “ Dusty Foot,” the name given to a
system of nee growing without irrigation

“ Kazhudaikku jim kattinalum kuthirai ahuma
(“ Even if you put a saddle on an ass, will it turn into a horse ?”)

About the horse I will quote only one proverb, which
illustrates a point of view that will be new to most people

“ Kuthirai gunam annthu allavu tambiran kombu kodukkavillai ’

(“ It was because He knew the horse's disposition, wasn’t it, that God
did not give it horns )

We have the very old proverb, “ God sends the shrewd
cow short horns/ the word “shrewd" indicating the great
age of this saying, but the Tamil form puts the noble
animal in quite a new light. Agriculture, and the seasons
as affecting it, come into many proverbs. There is a
favourite one of mine, which I will give in Lazarus’s
version, as the cadence is more pleasing than in the
shorter form

“ Karttigaakku minjina mazhaiyum Ulai,

Kamanukku minjina kodaiyum lllai ”

(“No ram excels November's,

No chanty excels King Karnan’s ”),

Karnan being one of seven princes noted for their liberality.

As caste governs Hindu life, the references to it in
proverbs are innumerable :

“ Sanmyasikkum jftdi manam pCgithu.”

(“ Even an ascetic will not lose pnde in his caste.”)

469

and to the Mind of the People

You must remember that the "sanniySsi” has renounced
all worldly cares and trammels, and yet the proverb teaches
us that he, too, never forgets his caste. The underlying
thought in this proverb is profoundly true even to this day,
and it has a very important bearing on many questions —
burning questions, volcanic questions even — of modem
South Indian politics. As the word “pariah” for a non-
caste Hindu is a Tamil one, and merely means “the man
who beats the big drum/' we have many proverbs about
him, kindly or unkindly, but generally showing great
understanding and observation.

“ Paraibuddi araibuddi.”

(“Pariah's wisdom half wisdom ")

“ Parai pongal ittal bhagavanukku er&do.”

{“ If a pariah make a boiled offering, will it not ascend to God ?”)

South India is the country for boiled offerings, a variety
of sacrifice that most people have forgotten, though we
seem to see a trace of it in the story of Hophni and Phineas,
the two sons of Eli.

The pariahs have always made brave soldiers, and there
is a proverb (I cannot remember the Tamil at the moment)
which has an ever-fresh significance — “Many a soldier
who conquered in battle lies rotting in a parcherry,” or
pariah village ; which reminds one of the two lines -

“ When the war is over and wrongs are righted,

God is forgot and the soldier slighted ”

A very curious fact is that the pariahs, who speak only
Tamil, are not a Tamil race, but an earlier one. In the
villages, if you want to know if a man is a caste man, you
ask, “ Tamizhan t5na V (“ Is he a Tamil ?”) And, if he is
not, the answer is, “Alla, Paraiyan tan” (“No, he’s a
panah ”). I mentioned this to the people who are preparing
the new great Tamil dictionary, a combination of Wins-
lowe’s work with Dr. Pope’s additions, to which I have

470 Tamil Proverbs : a Key to the Language

been able to contribute a good many hundred words and
phrases, a few picked up in Madura but most in South
Arcot, where the remote Kallakurichi taluk is a mine of
pure, living, colloquial Tamil. It so happened that the
Dictionary Committee had forgotten this distinction between
Tamils and pariahs, and discussion of it brought out the
distinction between Tamils and Brahmins, which is shown
by the phrase :

“ Tamizh vazhakkachSram ariya vazbakkacharam.”

(“ Tamil customary law and Brahmin customary law.”)

As a result of this, they added to the meanings given under
“ Tamizhan,” “ a Tamil man,” and I was very glad to make
this contribution to such a very important work.

As Tamil gives us the word “mango,” let us not forget
that Trichinopoly, a most famous Tamil town with a Tamil
name, has given us the cheroot, which is merely Tamil for
a roll. In English a roll means a particularly nice little
loaf ; in Tamil it is a roll of tobacco.

“ Dadi eriyacchs cheruttukku neruppu kettanam.”

(“ When one man’s beard was burning, another man, it is said, asked
for a light for his cheroot.”)

Just as, when I was lying desperately ill of fever in the
Madras General Hospital, a kind lady wrote a letter of
most anxious inquiry about a dog that I was looking after
for her sister! Nothing could have been more lucky; the
news of my illness had supplied her with the address— of
the dog.

I must be drawing this paper to a close. Among over
ten thousand proverbs one can make but a small selection,
but I hope that the specimens I have given suffice to prove
my thesis, that the Tamil proverbs do really give a key to
the language and to the mind of the people. Of all the
hundreds of subjects not touched on by me hitherto, let
me, in conclusion, choose but two, poetry and content, to

and to tM Mind of ikt PtopU 471

show you that these two essential ingredients in human life
and thought are not neglected or despised :

“ Kavi kondirukku kirtti
Athai sevi kol&rukku avakirtti ”

(“ Fame to the hearers of a poem,

111 fame to those that give no ear to it ”) ,

" Kamban vlttu vellattiyum kavi padum ”

(“ The very maidservant in [the poet] Kamban’s house will improvise
poetry ”),

and —

u PCthum enkira maname pon seyyum marunthu ”

(“ The heart that saith, ‘ It is enough,’ is a philtre that can make gold ’)

472 Tamil Proverbs a Key to the Language

DISCUSSION ON THE FOREGOING PAPER

At a meeting of the East India Association held on Monday, May 17, 19*0,
at the Lincolnshire Room, 7A, Tothill Street, Westminster, S W, a paper
was read by Mr Sydney G Roberts, ics (retired), entitled “Tamil
Proverbs A Key to the Language and to the Mind of the People ** Sir
Harvey Adamson, kcsi, occupied the chair The following ladies and
gentlemen, amongst others, were present Sir J D Rees, Bart , kcii.,
c v 0 , m p , General Chamier, The Lady Katharine Stuart, the Hon
Charles Patrick Stuart, Mr and Mrs H R H Wilkinson, Miss Webster,
Mr J B Pennington, Mr J H S Reid, Miss Roberts, Mrs Nash, Mr H C
Balasundaram, Mr S A Dass, Mrs Tracey, Mr W K Bowen, Miss
F R Scatcherd, Mr F J P Richter, Mr Duncan Irvine, Mrs Van Der
Linde, Mrs Drury, Miss Rosanna Powell, Miss Ryan, Mr C Leo
Parker, Mr Robert Sewell, Mr S S G Viran, Mr W W R Lester,
Mr and Mrs H R Cook, Miss Dunderdale, Mrs Mackenzie, Mrs White,
Mrs E F Kinmer Tarte, and Mr Stanley P Rice, Hon Secretary

The Chairman Ladies and gentlemen, the paper to day is rather a
long one, so I will not detain >ou with many preliminary remarks I have
much pleasure in introducing Mr Sydney Roberts, who is a distinguished
Tamil scholar, and who has made a special study of Tamil proverbs
Mr Roberts acquaintance with the Madras Presidency is the accumulated
wisdom of two generations, for he has been a Madras civilian himself and
his father was a Madras civilian before him I will now leave you to
enjoy the paper

The lecture was then read

The Chairman I have to apologize to you most humbly for being
where I am to-day, in the chair, for I confess I know nothing about Tamil
proverbs My only acquaintance with the Tamil people is derived from
the butlers and cooks and ayahs that waited upon us in Burma, the land
of my adoption They were good, faithful, and intelligent servants No
better are to be found anywhere in India, or, in my opinion, even m this
country They are, like the Russians, marvellous linguists There is
scarcely one of them who cannot talk Tamil, Telugu, Hindustani, Burmese,
and English with equal fluency, but their language to “ master ” is English
Consequently, I know scarcely anything of Tamil I have heard it spoken
to my sorrow. Mr Roberts says it is not a sweet language, and I agree
with him It came to me as a never-ending rumble of incoherent sounds
from the godowns From hearing it I gathered two impressions, first that
there are more R’s m Tamil than even m Scotch, and second, that the
Tamils are the most loquacious people in the world, and that they have a
powerful flow of words

and to the Mind oj the People

473

Well, Udie$ and gentlemen, you may ask, if these are my qualifications
for presiding at a Tamil lecture, how can I have the face to appear in the
chair? 1 will tell you Those of you who know Mr Sydney Roberts
know that he has a very persuasive tongue, and that, like the Tamils of
whom he speaks, he is a master of eloquence When Mr Roberts asked
me to preside at this lecture I said to him “My dear Sydney, the
chairman at a paper at the East India Association is expected to get up
and give an analysis of the paper, whereas I know nothing whatever about
Tamil proverbs, and, in fact, I have never heard one in my life ’ Then
Mr Roberts turned upon me the tap of his eloquence, and I was over
powered by the flood I do not remember all that he said, but the gist of
it was — " The more ignorant you are of the subject the better fitted you are
to be an impartial chairman ’ So I rashly consented, and here I am
apologizing for being where I am. It would be a mere impertinence on
my part to attempt any criticism of the paper Proverbs in any tongue
are pithy and concise expressions of the experience of a people They are
a sort of potted wisdom Tbeir beauty lies m their wit and condensation
To appreciate them properly you must understand them in the language of
their origin However good a translation may be, it can convey only the
meaning without the wit of the original Beautiful as are the Proverbs of
Solomon in our English Bible, they must have lost much by translation
Another reason why one who like myself is ignorant of Tamil can hardly
venture on criticism is that it appears to me that this paper is not an intro
duction to Tamil proverbs for the benefit of the uninitiated, but rather a
collection of tit bits for the consumption of those who are already
pnlightened Still I think that the proverbs which have been quoted are
beautiful and expressive, even m their translation, and I am sure that all
who have heard the paper will realize how fond an interest Mr Roberts
has taken m his subject.

I venture to express an opinion that the Tamil scholars who are present
will find much of interest that is new to them in this paper I hope that
Tamil scholars will continue the discussion, but, for my own part, I am
just a little afraid that these Tamil scholars may a'ready be thinking of me
in Tamil m the words of their own proverbs, that I am but a “cock that
crows m the egg, or “ a top without a string ”

Sir J D. Rees said that when there was a lecture on Tamil in London he
thought it was satisfactory that some of those who were interested m the
Tamil language should come and say a word or two about it, and his first
-emark after thanking the lecturer for so charming a lecture would be that
he wished the Tamil proverbs had been given in the beautiful Tamil
character because, although he could speak Tamil for many years pretty
nearly as well as English, he confessed that even with the knowledge he
had, he was unable to pronounce a word or understand a word when
transliterated into the Roman character. He said that not by way of
complaint, but because it raised an issue which he believed had been much
thacusaed by the East India Association He could understand a person
who had no interest in languages, and who could not appreciate their
aroma and tbeir subtlety and their individuality, desiring to crush them all

474 Tamil Proverbs a Key to the Language

into one mould, and to prescribe some homble script in die Roman
character, to the destruction of the beautiful and characteristic letters of
the Eastern languages He protested, however, that notwithstanding his
familiarity with Tamil, he could make absolutely nothing out of any Tamil
word in the whole of the lecture, because it was given in the Roman
character He did not believe anyone would ever leam the Tamil language
m that way, or any other language He was afraid his remarks would
be regarded as rank heresy by the late Secretary to the Association, a
good man who had been led astray by Esperanto and strange gods of that
description

He wished to say the subject was a most admirable one for a lecture,
and so far from being remote from living interest he believed that if the
joint committees of the Lords and Commons were familiar with the Tamil
proverbs they would be very much more at home with their subject than
some of them were As an instance, he might take one from the paper,
because it was a very instructive one, but he would not attempt to put it
into Tamil It was said in the paper “Even an ascetic will not lose
pnde in his caste That would be a very valuable reflection for those
persons who were proceeding on the assumption that caste was almost, if
not quite, dead As a matter of fact, it was the most living thing in India,
and those who would like to see such institutions as caste abolished were
the very worst guides to be followed by those who wished to get at the
hearts of their fellow subjects m India It pained him to read the offhand
condemnation of caste m which our Bishops and clergy often indulged

The lecturer had referred to Mr Lazurus s Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs,
which was a most interesting book, and he would like to say how very
much like the Bible the Tamil proverbs are There was a most extra-
ordinary resemblance which must be obvious to anyone who had read
them In some cases they were really almost word for word identical with
some of the most beautiful things m the Bible “ The tears of the poor
are like a sharp edged sword," which was just like Ecclesiastes The same
idea in almost the same words Still another “ You can stop the boiling
pot, but not the mouth of the village ” Who that had lived in India did
not realize the truth of that and of many other Tamil proverbs ? The
lecture they had just heard added very largely to the very moderate
information of those who, like himself and others present, realized what a
beautiful language Tamil is — how complete and perfect, and how ignorant
those are who sometimes describe it as a coolie language It would be
just as correct to call English an unpolished language, as it would be to
say the same of Tamil, which was one of the most perfect languages that
was ever invented When he read books in Tamil the construction often
reminded him very much of Thucydides where you begin at the top, and
only get to the finite verb at the end of the page

In conclusion, he wished to apologize for his rather disjointed remarks,
and it only remained for him to ex press h» appreciation of the lecture,
and to say bow very glad he was to have been able to hear something
about the Tamil language from an expert m this country, and to express
the hope that he would never again see an Indian language, be it

and to the Mtnd of the People

475

Hindustani or Fenian, with the beautiful Arabic character, sacred to all
Mohammedans, or Derail agan character, sacred to all Hindus or the
Tamil language, sacred to Tamulians, disfigured by the rain effort to
present them in tortured and misapplied Roman characters underscored,
over-dotted, and altogether incongruous and absurd (Hear, hear, and
applause )

Mr Rica said he had spent a good portion of his time in the Madras
Presidency, but he was afraid most of hts time was not spent in the Tamil
country, and Mr Roberts had given him credit for a good deal of wisdom
he did not possess with regard to the subject of Tamil proverbs, of which
the lecturer was a master and of which he knew comparatively little As
Secretary of the Association he would like to say to Sir John Rets that it
was possible that the Tamil proverbs were not printed m the Tamil
character, because as Tamil was not a universal language the printers were
not able to get type in the Tamil character Possibly, also, it was due to
the lecturer having sent in his H copy written in the English character
With regard to Sir John s reference to the late Secretary’s fondness for
Esperanto, he could assure him that he entirely agreed with all he had said
on the subject of transliteration he agreed that it absolutely took away the
character and beauty of the language to have it in the form in which it was
printed, and, although he put it down mainly to his own very limited
knowledge of Tamil, he found himself in exactly the same position — he
could not make sense of any of it So far as he personally was concerned
he had nothing to add to what Sir John Rees had said on tne subject, and
he felt he could not put it half so well

The Chairman in his few remarks had referred to the Tamil language as
a “ rumble of incoherent sounds,” whereas Sir John D Rees had referred to
it as very beautiful — one of the most beautiful and complete languages in
the world That rathe brought him to what the lecturer had said on
p 463—# t

“ It is the everyday life that is so hard for a foreigner to learn — the little
words, the little household customs and sayings , and it is precisely these
which he will meet with in these proverbs And if he learns a little, and
uses that little, then he can learn a little for himself , for in India, if one is
out fishing for information, you must bait the hook with a little knowledge
Then people realize you are a learner, not a scoffer and will take a pnde
and a pleasure in explaining their manners and customs

He would like to join those two together, because if one did not take a
pnde and a pleasure in trying to find out what the people were doing, then
the whole of India was nothing but a rumble of incoherent sounds from
end to end He had not personally made much enquiry in the direction
w ^t*ch the lecturer had chosen either in regard to the Tamil language or
the Tamil proverbs, but he had taken considerable pains to make himself
acquainted with many walks of native life; especially m the villages, and he
found, as the lecturer had stated, that if one took a pnde and pleasure in
to* work the Indians took great pleasure m explaining their manners and
cu * on “. rchgions and ceremonies, and he found m many ways that if one
not do that, then, as {he chairman bad said, the whole of one’s

4 7 6 Tamil Proverbs a Key to the Language

experience in India would be nothing but a rumble of incoherent sounds,
which he had said Tamil was to him, but which he was certain Burmese
was not (Hear, hear )

The Lady Katharine Stuart said she was not a Tamil scholar, but
she would like to clear up a little misunderstanding about the subject of
Esperanto It was not intended to supersede the beautiful languages of
India, but was rather intended as an auxiliary to enable people to realize
something of other languages and the thoughts of other people — to look
at the ways and the thoughts of others through their own spectacles, as it
were, and to look at life as they looked at it She very much regretted she
had not learned the local language when she was in India, but like the
chairman she was spoiled by the fact that all the people about her spoke
English so well that really no opportunity was given to one to commence
learning the language It seemed to her that each language contained a
certain truth, and if one could take an international language as, say
colour white, then each language as it became correlated with it would
bring one especial colour, as it were, to add to it , and it was the same
with individuals — they had to be loyal, not only to the general truth, but
to the particular truth they were sent into the world for, called by
Swedenborg the “propnum,” and she could not help thinking that
Esperanto would help them to harmonize the general truth which all
nations had, and the particular truth that each nation had to bring
forward Helpful and beautiful as were these proverbs with their sweet
spice, was there not something even more divinely lovely in the living
fragrance of the Beatitudes ? for the worldly wisdom knew not God — nor
so much as suspected His salvation.

Mr H C Balasundram said that he had had the privilege of hearing
a good deal about Mr Roberts while he was m India, and they always
looked upon him as one of their most distinguished and sympathetic
administrators, and the name of their chairman was known to him as one
of the friends of India

He would not follow the example of one of the previous speakers by
importing politics into so charming a lecture In politics they were not
often able to see eye to eye with their English friends, but so far as the
lecture was concerned, the most charming portion of it was that which
referred to the place of contentment in Indian life, and he would like to
mention one or two proverbs which gave an insight into the real Indian
life. When a wedding took place the eider of the family blessed the
couple with a singularly effective phrase, “ May you be as virtuous as Sita."
“ Sita 1 stood for fidelity, devotion, and the fear of God Then another
which was very dear to those who lived in certain districts was “ As the
yarn, so will the texture of the cloth be ” — that is, “As the mother, so will
the daughter be ” As one went through the inlying districts of the Madras
Presidency — where he had been working as a Missionary — one came
across many fine instances of proverbs which all dealt with the warp and
the woof and the little details of weaving, in which work the inhabitants
were engaged from morning till night Another proverb, of which a
different rendering bad been given, was “ Even to the crow its little one a

477

and to the Mind of the People

precious * When a child went astray, and when the others pointed the
finger of scorn at him, the devoted mother and the affectionate father throw
out the proverb “ So even this son who goes astray so often is precious
to me.” Another which was perhaps not very elegant was indicative of the
kind of the particular kind of life 11 A cat which always finds a place id
the temple/’ which was often applied to people who lived m the temple,
and who made the offerings their main source of income That had both
a ridiculous and a charming side to it, because when it was applied to a
man about whom they had not a good report, it meant that the man had
been making a fortune out of the temple offerings, but it was used in
other cases to mean “ As poor as a church mouse,” which meant that his
poverty was due to his devotion to the temple services.

He did not know enough about the different Provinces to enable him to
speak as an authority, but he did agree with the lecturer that, so far as
Tamil was concerned, if an administrator or a missionary wanted to help
the Tamil districts of India he should first of all attempt to learn its
proverbs, for the 1 amil proverbs were a true indication of the life that was
behird them (Hear, hear, and applause )

The Lecturer in reply said Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,
I feel that the criticisms which my former colleague and Sir John Rees
have uttered on the cnme of transliterating or attempting to transliterate
Tamil are fully merited, if one has done anything which would suggest a
belief that the script of a language is not closely connected with the
character of the language I have had the pleasure m India of hearing a
most marvellous lecture by a gentleman whose name I cannot, for the
moment, recall, on the inward meaning of Tamil script, especially that
marvellous letter “ O ” At the same time I must plead m mitigation of
my offence that while it is not possible for any person m England, not
surrounded by the speakers of the language, to get any sort of idea of the
language from anything short of the Tamil script, yet it is found in practice
by the very people who compiled that little manual for the use of
prompters of all kinds in Ceylon and in the Malay States — it is found
possible to transliterate the English form with some usefulness, and it
helps one to some extent to fix the thing more firmly in one’s mind than
would otherwise be the case, because people who use manuals of that
kind are not generally able to devote the time which is necessary for
properly mastenng the script When you consider the enormous amount
of work that a young planter has when he first goes out to India, and who
has not the time or the facility for study — when you consider that the
transliteration may help him to a more extended knowledge, that is
some mitigation of the crime to which I have been a party I am glad to
have a confirmation from one born and bred m the Tamil country of the
opinion which I have formed of the value of Tamil proverbs So far as
my opinion goes (I can only say I have not borrowed it from other
people), it is one which was confirmed m my mind in one of the few way*
in which you can form a proper theory — that is, by the process of crystal-
lization. If you fill your mind with as many facts as possible, and drop
the thread of a question into that supersaturated solution, then very often

478

TamU Proverbs

it will enable a theory to crystallize oat which is really true, and, being
composed of facts, u not only beautiful to look at, but does really afford
an answer to the question before you. In the case of Tamil, of course,
I would also say that the Tamil writing is, stnctly, a process of engraving.
I remember being told in one of the Arcots that the old village accoun-
tants were so expert that, with a narrow strip of palm leaf lying on their
forefinger and with the thumb nail of the left hand prolonged into a shovel-
form and notched for a fulcrum to their stylus, they were able to go along
pushing a palm leaf this way and that way, incising letters on it whilst they
trotted along by the side of the Tahsildar’s palanquin, and so they could
write in a perfectly regular and neat manner, and m a perfectly indelible
way, whilst running You read in the Bible, “ He who runs may read/’
and 1 think this practice amongst these village people shows they were the
first persons to find out that “ He who runs may write.” I do not know
anywhere else that people can wnte whilst running, even with fountain
pens, but this wonderful Tamil script can be used even under such
difficult circumstances as that , and therefore I agree with Sir John Rees
that the Tamil script is a very strong and inseparable part of the language,
and that Tamil cannot properly be represented except by the scnpt
With regard to the peculiar Tamil R, Sir Harvey Adamson is right
in saying that the Tamil has more R’b than any other language. It
certainly has three R’s I may say that I was able to my own satisfaction
to settle m my own mind from which coast of India the word *' ginger ”
came Ginger is an Indian product, and the word “ginger” must come
from the west coast of India. For whilst it is true that Injt is the word
for ginger, common to the sister languages of Tamil and Malayalam, the
edible ginger is always known on the west coast as Injiver ( — ginger-root) ,
and this became Ztnztbtr , from which we get gmgtmbn and “ ginger ”

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, it only remains for me to thank
you for your kind attention to my lecture.

The Chairman I have pleasure in proposing a vote of thanks to
Mr Roberts for his very interesting paper and for the interesting speech
he has just given us I would like also to apologize to Mr Rice for saying
that the Tamil language was a rumble of incoherent sounds, but he will
remember that when I said it I said it m my ignorance I agree with what
Sir John Rees urged that the languages of India should always be written
in their proper scnpt. I am best acquainted with the Burmese language,
and I know that when presented in Roman scnpt it is unreadable I
would like to say that the speech which impressed me most to day was the
one which was most relevant to the paper, the speech by Mr Balusondram.
It helped me to appreciate the beauty of Tamil proverbs
Sir J D Rees May I as another Tamil man be allowed to second this
vote of thanks to Mr Roberts.

(The vote of thanks was then put to the meeting and carried
unanimously.)

Mr Rice . It is my pleasing duty to propose a vote of thanks to Sir
Harvey Adamson for so kindly presiding at oar meeting. (Hear, hear.)

The Chairman I am obliged to you, ladies and gentlemen.

479

THE REPORT OF THE HUNTER
COMMISSION

By Stanley Rice, i.c.s. (retd.)

Public opinion has been centred so much round Amritsar
and the dramatic doings of General Dyer that the true
perspective of the events in the Punjab and Bombay in the
spring of 1919 is in danger of being lost. It is, therefore,
worth while to narrate briefly the story of Ahmedabad,
Kasur, Viramgam and Gujranwala, where the mobs were
quite as savage, quite as determined as that of Amritsar,
and where, as the Report itself says, they only lacked the
opportunity to obtain equal fame.

All these outbreaks occurred within a few days of one
another ; all were attended with loss of life ; but as the
numbers killed were comparatively small, except at Amritsar,
the other riots have been more or less neglected, though
they each, in fact, formed part of a widespread movement,
whether due to conspiracy or coincidence, which must have
influenced the Punjab Government and General Dyer in
the course they took.

The outbreak on April 10 at Ahmedabad was immediately
due to the arrest of Mr. Gandhi. Two Europeans were
attacked with stones and fire, but managed to escape. A
policeman, however, was captured, thrown from a balcony,
and died the same day. On the 1 1 th they burnt the
Collector’s Office and other public buildings, attacked three
or four other Europeans, who escaped with their lives, and
finally murdered Sergeant Fraser. On the 12th British
troops arrived and the situation improved, though
disturbances did not cease rill the arrival of Mr. Gandhi
on the r^th.

480 The Report of the Hunter Commission

The outbreak at Viramgam on the 12th was marked by
a particularly brutal murder of an Indian official who tried
to defend his charge. He was dragged into the road and
burnt alive, his clothes being saturated with kerosene oil.
They burnt the railway station and the Mamlatdar’s office,
and looted the Treasury.

At Kasur two European warrant officers were killed ;
other Europeans had to fight for their Jives, and the usual
attacks were made upon the Government buildings. It is
significant that here the crowd was composed of very low-
class people to whom the Rowlatt Act and Mr. Gandhi’s
Satyagraha could have meant little or nothing without
promptings from others.

Gujranwala rose on the 14th. Here no European lives
were lost, but there were very few there, and apparently it
was through lack of opportunity rather than of intention
that murder was not committed. The post office, railway
station, and other public buildings were burnt.

This bare recital of the excesses committed in three or
four places gives but a very faint idea of the general
condition of the districts. We are to imagine howling,
gesticulating mobs, ready for any kind of mischief, be it
even arson or murder, confronted by the wholly inadequate
forces of law and order, and backed by a whole
countryside prepared to break into flame on the slightest
provocation. Leaving the murders out of account, the
damage done in the Punjab alone (including, of course,
Amritsar) was estimated at nearly twenty-six lakhs of
rupees. No mention has been made of various other
places where excesses occurred, particularly of Lahore,
Gujrat and Sangla, because reiteration would be wearisome ;
but all these places contributed their share in making the
situation critical.

It is hardly necessary to record in detail all that happened
at Amritsar. Suffice it to say that the mob, which " was
no crowd of mourning " but was bent on “ angry and
obstreperous protest," before the Deputy Commissioner was

The Report of the Hunter Commission 481

transformed into a raging mass of savagery — some say was
provoked into excess — by three or four shots fired under
the compulsion of events. The National Bank was burnt ;
three bank managers were brutally murdered ; Guard
Robinson and Sergeant Rowlands were also killed ; Miss
Sherwood was knocked down and left for dead, and Mrs.
Easdon and other Europeans were saved more or less by
accident. The total damage done in Amritsar District, a
great part of which must have been in Amritsar City, was
approximately valued at seventeen lakhs. Three days
afterwards, while the city was still in the hands of the mob,
Genera] Dyer issued his proclamation by beat of drum and
posted it in nineteen places. Finding it disobeyed, he fired
upon the crowd in the Jalianwala Bagh and killed 379 men.

The Majority Report finds upon these facts that a state
of rebellion which might at any time develop into a
revolution did exist The Minority, on the other hand,
think that there never was any rebellion at all, and that
therefore no revolution could have taken place. In
Chapter III. they contend in great detail that at all the
principal places things very quickly resumed their normal
aspect, and that, even granting the importance of communi-
cations, very many of the offences against them were trivial.
Their principal object was to show that martial law was at
no time necessary, and incidentally that the action of
General Dyer was quite unjustified, since the city was
peaceful on the 12th. In pursuance of their object they
take the nine reasons of Sir Michael O’Dwyer for
declaring martial law, and proceed not merely to minimize
but to demolish them one by one and to argue, what is self-
evident, that the aggregate of Zeros amounts to Zero. In
their condemnation of General Dyer as un- British and
inhuman — epithets quoted by the British press — they are
at least consistent: for having persuaded themselves
that there was no rebellion at all, and that the city
was peaceful, they naturally conclude that the firing
was gratuitous. The Majority, on the other hand, having

482 The Report of the Hunter Commission

premised rebellion and dangerous lawlessness, condemn
General Dyer for two things : (1) that he gave no warning,
and (2) that he went on firing after the crowd had begun to
disperse. That he gave no warning is technically true ; at
the same time the proclamation must have been read and
heard by several hundreds if not thousands in Amritsar, and
the doings of the last two or three days must have been in
everyone’s mouth. But to condemn him for continuing to
fire is to confuse the issue. General Dyer, left to his own
responsibility — for the civil authorities seem to have with-
drawn altogether — conceived that by a sharp stroke he
would end the rebellion ; many people think he did so, and
even the Government of India says that “his action
resulted in an immediate discouragement of the forces of
disorder.” Indeed, they praise Sir Michael O’Dwyer for
“ quelling a dangerous rising which might have had wide-
spread and disastrous effects on the rest of India.” Sir
Michael O'Dwyer approved the General's action, and
reading the Government of India’s resolution closely, one is
forced to the conclusion that the one officer is praised largely
because he profited by the action of the other who is con-
demned. In condemning General Dyer for continuing to
fire after the crowd had begun to disperse, the Commission
seem to have turned from the general situation to the
particular instance; though they argue that “continued
firing upon that crowd cannot be justified because of the
effect such firing may have upon people in other
places.” Even granting this doctrine, it is still open to
argument whether anything less than General Dyer’s
drastic object would have put a stop to the excesses in
Amritsar itself. If force is to cease the moment that the
immediate action is attained, a species of guerilla warfare is
established which may be continued indefinitely. The mob
have only to disperse and to concert measures for renewing
operations in greater strength and in more favourable
conditions.

The Commission has, however, done a great service in

Tfu Rtport of the HunUr Commission 483

confuting the hysterical shriekings of certain journals by
bringing into prominence the actual state of affairs which
existed in the Punjab at the time, and by placing General
Dyer s doings in a truer perspective. The Majority and the
Minority are in practical agreement on the facts, and their
findings have been supplemented by the evidence of private
persons who endured that anxious time. No doubt the
evidence was mainly official, and the reason is given in
Lord Hunter’s prefatory letter. The Congress offered to
produce evidence on condition that the Commission would
recommend the release of the political prisoners. The
reply was that such a course did not lie within the mandate of
the Commission, but that they were prepared to call for the
production of persons in custody who would be given every
facility to consult counsel. This had no effect. It was
evident that the aim of the Congress was to secure the
release rather than to produce the evidence, and on Decem-
ber 30, when the principal leaders had been released, they
offered to produce witnesses on conditions which amounted
to reopening the inquiry. This the Commission declined
to do. If, therefore, the Congress now accuse the
Commission of partiality, they have only themselves to
thank, for there is no doubt that the witnesses would have
been produced, and that full opportunity would have bean
given for cross-examination.

The assertion that the crowd that went to the Deputy
Commissioner’s house on the 10th was a peaceful body,
intentonlyon a lawful and constitutional protest, is summarily
discussed by the Majority as “ a travesty of facts.” The
Minority take a middle course. Without denying that the
crowd were unruly, they imply that they were less truculent
than their colleagues assert, and there is a similar divergence
of opinion as to the result of the first firing. The Majority
state bluntly that to say that “ it was the cause of the
excesses is simply untrue.” The Minority hold that it was
the spark which kindled the conflagration, and this is very
likely true, but it is very far removed from the shriek that

484 The Report of the Hunter Commission

this small incident — the firing of some six or eight shots —
was the brutal act of an irresponsible bureaucracy which
turned a peaceful and law-abiding crowd into a mob of
savages.

Neither is it fair to talk, as more sober journals have
done, of 4< being tarred with von Bissing's brush,” or of
imitating the Prussians. Systematic terror was part of the
Prussian military creed, and in such cases as that of the
Herreros part of the German colonial system. To institute
such a parallel is like comparing the father who uses a
strap to correct his boy with the fiend who turns his child
out naked into a winter’s night with bruised shoulders and
a bloody back. The British Empire has never yet relied
and will never rely on the systematic use of brutal force ; if
it had it would not be where it is now, for no empire which
has rested on force has ever lasted. But that does not
mean that force is not to be used when the terrible
necessity demands ; and the question will always arise — a
question as hard to answer in cold blood after the event as
it is in hot blood at the time — what it is that necessity
demands.

Not many words need be wasted over the “ crawling ”
and some other orders issued under martial law. The
doings of General Dyer after the firing was over were most
unfortunate, because they put a complexion upon it which
was eminently calculated to cause misunderstanding. The
justice of firing upon a crowd which mayor may not contain
innocent persons may be questioned, but is at least capable
of defence. The justice of making men, guilty or innocent
alike, crawl through a lane because a lady was brutally
assaulted there, and also of flogging certain persons because
they were suspected of the assault, was indefensible. Not
much better was what is known as the “salaaming ” order,
partly because it inflicted humiliation on those who
disapproved of the disorders as well as on those who had
taken part in them, and partly because it was an attempt to
revive an obsolete custom. These things were done

The Report of the Hunter Commission 485

because the military officers thought it their duty to do
them ; they were a form of “ frightfulness,” and it is signifi-
cant that no one, not even those who unreservedly approve
of the proceedings in the Jalianwala Bagh, has been found
to defend them.

To men placed in General Dyer’s position, who have to
take their courage in both hands, there is no middle course.
They must take their chance of reward or punishment. But
if there was rebellion — and the Majority, the Government
of India, and the Secretary of State agree that there was —
and if as the Government of India admits, General Dyer’s
action put a stop to it, then he seems to have been treated
with less than justice for doing, to put it very broadly, the
right thing in the wrong way.

POSTSCRIPT

Sir M O’ Dwyer’s letter to the Morning Post of June 9 confirms the
general conclusions arrived at in this article, but strengthens the case by
introducing certain facts unknown to those who have only had the Report
itself as the source of their information We learn now that the meeting
of the jalianwala Bagh was definitely found by judicial trial to have
been organized by a man who had taken an active and prominent part in
the outbreak, and who was actually sentenced to death for his deeds
How, then, could the meeting have been anything but a defiant assembly,
the logical outcome of the previous three days’ doings, and what becomes
of the ridiculous assertion that it was a crowd of peaceful citizens gathered
together to concert measures to restore law and order ? It is, moreover,
perfectly true, as Sir M O’Dwyer contends, that the whole inquiry was
greatly prejudiced by the delay in starting it, because to the natural blurr-
ing of the memory, common to all countries, we must add the susceptibility
of Indians to outside influences, to intimidation, to persuasion, to mis-
representation, not to mention other even less creditable methods of
colouring or suppressing evidence. The composition of the Minority and
the delay m disclosing the facts are startling in view of what Sir M.
O’Dwyer now says, but the cardinal points of the whole letter are to show
up the rebellion in a light more lurid than ever, and to press home the
charge of a conspiracy of which there may be no proof, but the existence
of which, nevertheless, there are good grounds to suspect

486

WHAT THE WORLD WAR GAVE TO JAPAN
By Michizo Masuda

Some Westerners may think that Japan is so far removed
from the scene of the World’s War that she has luckily
escaped the terrible consequences of the strife. But this is
only a one-sided view. Throw a piece of stone into the
centre of a pond and you will find the rings thus formed
spread ashore in all directions and at the same speed. The
tidal waves caused by the sudden outbreak of an unheard-
of struggle among nations at last came to wash and over-
flow the otherwise peaceful shores of the Land of Mikado,
and many a change for better or for worse was witnessed
within his sacred realm. The following is a description of
some of the changes that were directly brought about by
the war, with special emphasis on the cultured or intel-
lectual side.

First of all, Japanese social life was entirely transformed
by and after the European War, Hitherto the fourth
estate of Japan was sleeping a peaceful sleep in complete
enthraldom to the capitalistic classes. But at present they
are awakened from their slumber and often resort to strikes
in order to raise their wages or improve their conditions of
living. The awakening of labour was especially precipi-
tated by the International Labour Conference, for which
the election of able representatives was necessarily made
from among the labour classes. This procedure placed
capital and labour on an equal footing, the latter being far
inferior to and weaker than the former up to this time.
Indeed, the awakening of the workmen is one of the most
salient features of the post-bellum Japan.

What the World War gave to Japan 487

Next comes the women’s question. Japan is a country
where the At man first, woman second ” principle is main-
tained without raising any feeling of injustice or unreason-
ableness. Japanese women themselves have regarded their
situation as natural, and therefore indisputable, and have
never raised a cry of protest against man’s tyranny. But
since the introduction of Western literature they have no
longer been mere " dolls,” but have developed individuali-
ties equal to men — nay, even have become the “ better
half” of mankind, with the full enjoyment of heavenly as
well as earthly gifts. The most remarkable precursor of
such a tendency among Japanese ladies was the staging of
Ibsen’s “ Doll’s House ” by the Bungei Kyokai (literally, the
“ Society for Art and Literature ”), under the direct control
of Dr. Tsubouchi, the most eminent — nay, the sole authority
on Shakespeare in Japan. Toward the end of the play the
heroine says pathetically : “ We women must first find our
true selves before we unite ourselves to men as their
wives.” This passage made a deep impression on the
hitherto slumbering souls of Japanese women, who suddenly
awoke to their wrong situation. Shortly afterwards the
thoughts of Ellen Key arrested attention among the female
reading public. Thus the Japanese women have gradually
been led to enlightenment. Even at present they have no
right of suffrage — nay, no right to attend a political
meeting. They are still held in disrespect. In point of
fact they are still inferior to men in intellect, capacity,
education, etc. It will take a few centuries more to enable
them to stand on an equal footing in deed as well as
in name.

Last of all, let me refer a little to the inner life of the
Japanese people as it has changed after the Worlds War.
To speak candidly, the Japanese were waterproof against
democracy, but the war has broken the hard crust of
bigotry and permeated the sweet juice of democracy through
the whole frame of the nation. Indeed, the word “democracy”
became so popular as to be Japonized and adopted into the

488 WJuU tfu World War gout to Japan

large family of vernacular vocabulary. Some foreigners
still look on Japan with a little suspicion, thinking that she
is a dangerous, aggressive nation. But nothing is farther
from the truth. Even under bureaucratic rule she was
never a warlike nation. She fought the Sino- Japanese and
Russo-Japanese Wars for the defence of the country and
the people. She has been forced to fight. Now Japan is
a different country from what she used to be. If the
Government in power is disposed to make war, the whole
nation will not back up the scheme if it does not fall in with
their wishes.

Hitherto Japan was in reality a land of nobles. The
intelligent minority has been governing the uncultured
majority. But the tables have been turned, and the power
of the masses has come to be the central factor which set
in motion the whole national machinery. Nothing can be
done without the consent and support of the general masses.
Such a change is a remarkable result of the World’s War,
and things keep on changing every day.

Indeed, Japan has undergone a complete transformation
since the outbreak of the gigantic world’s struggle. Visitors
to the Land of Mikado before the war, if they revisit the
country, will rub their eyes many times before they can
assure themselves that they have landed on the same
Mikado’s Land. Foreigners who would form the latest
views in regard to Japan and things Japanese must be quit
of all their preconceptions and come face to face with Neo-
Japan and Neo-Japonism.

489

THE BURMESE SHAN STATES AND THE TAI
By Captain H. J. Inman

The Burmese Shan States are bounded on the north by
China, on the east by China, on the south by China and
the French Lao territory by Siam and by Karenni, and on
the west by the Bhamo, Ruby Mines, Mandalay, Kyaukse,
Meiktila, and Yemethin Districts of Upper Burma, and by
the Toungu District of Lower Burma.

All the states are ruled over by hereditary chiefs ; the
most important of them are entitled Sawbwas, from the Shan
“ Sao,” a lord, and “ Hpa,” father. The second-class chiefs
are called Myosas, and third-class chiefs are called Ngwe-
gunhmus.

The most important of the Shan States are North
and South Hsenwi, Hsipaw, Kengtung, Mongnai, and
Yawnghwe.

The Shans of Hsenwi have stronger Chinese affinities
than the others more to the south.

There is a considerable percentage of Chinese and Chinese
Shans in North Hsenwi, and there are some Chinese in
South Hsenwi.

The Trans- Sal ween substate of Kokang, which is a
part of the North Hsenwi State, was acquired under a
convention with China in 1897. It was then thought likely
that the Mandalay- Lashio Railway would eventually be
carried on to the Kunlong Ferry, and up the valley of the
River Nam Ting, on the other side of the Salween, into
China.

The chief of Kokang is known as the Heng, and was a
Chinaman when I was there in 1897. He was a man of con-
siderable influence. The population of Kokang is largely

490

The Burmese Shan States and the Tat

Chinese, and he was Lord of the Marches. He had had
much frontier fighting, and was nearly blind through the
explosion of his powder horn. He had had trouble with
the Huetzu, or Chinese Muhammadans of Yunnan.

He lived at Satishu, a mountain stronghold overlooking
the gorges of the Salween, which flowed thousands of feet
below. This place was approached north and south by stone
stairways, and with those exceptions was entirely surrounded
by a dense mass of entangled creepers and thorn bushes.
His house stood in the centre, a typical Chinese building.

Our frontier military police post was at Tawnio, eight
miles from Satishsu, and was under the command of an
Assistant - Commandant of the Lashio Military Police
Battalion, and consisted of Punjabi Muhammadans, who were
very friendly with the Huetzu ; these latter were inclined to
spread alarmist reports regarding the massing of Chinese
troops with artillery across the frontier. It was considered
advisable to send a civil officer, and I, being at Lashio at
the time, was sent to Kokang.

While I was there the Heng came down to Tawnio and
took part in the celebrations of Queen Victoria’s second
Jubilee; he came with a large following, with many banners
and gong beaters. The Government decorated him with a
Burmese title.

There is a large Chinese temple, or joss, at Tawnio,
dedicated to Kwang-Fu-Tsz, a military god of the Han
Dynasty, and effigies of Chinese cavalry and infantry guarded
the portals.

Whilst I was there an English traveller arrived from
Canton, having travelled by wayof the West River, Kwangsi,
and Yunnan.

The Chinese Muhammadans, or Huetzu, have a colony
south of Kokang in the La- Wa State of Sonmu. They are a
remnant of the rebels who tried to establish a Muhammadan
kingdom at Tali in Yunnan during the seventies of the
last century, but were defeated and scattered by the Chinese
Imperial troops.

The Burmese Shan States and the Tai 491

They are known to the Burmese as Panthes, and, like
the Heng of Kokang, are great traders with mule caravans.

There is also a Chinese colony at Loi Maw in the South
Hsenwi State, administered by a Chinaman, called a Myosa,
who is subordinate to the Sawbwa of the South Hsenwi State,

The Hsenwi-Shans have a legend that a white tiger
killed the daughter of the Emperor of China, and was
tracked into Hsenwi and thence into Mangldn, and was
there trapped and carried via Tang-Yan, Mong-Pat, Ho-
Ya, and Namhkam, to China in a basket. Tang-Yan in Shan
means the “ basket bends down.” The local Shans say it
is called so after the tiger that was brought there in a basket.
One march farther north the coup de grdce was given to
the white tiger at Mong Pat, which means in Shan the
place of the cut ; and still one march farther north at Ho-Ya
the tiger’s head was cut off — Ho-Ya means to cut off the
head — and at Namhkam, in North Hsenwi, there is a pagoda
sacred to the white tiger.

When the Emperor of China knew that the tiger had
been killed he was glad, and presented the Sawbwa of
Hsenwi with a seal authorizing him to collect toll from
traders passing through his state.

Though the legend has not yet been satisfactorily inter-
preted, it shows that amicable trading relations have long
existed between China and Hsenwi.

When King Thibaw was deposed in 1885, the son of
the then Hsenwi Sawbwa was a political prisoner in
Mandalay. His father was at war with an adventurer from
the Tang-Yan side who had placed himself at the head of
the Kachins, and when the Sawbwa’s son was released he
immediately marched against the usurper of his father’s
dominions, but was defeated near Lashio. When a British
column moved north from Fort Stedman in 1887-88, it
was decided at Mong-Yai that the Hsenwi Sawbwa should
be recognized as a chief of the southern portion of the state,
aj id that the leader of the Kachins should be recognized as

49 2 The Burmese Shan States and the Tat

the chief of the northern portion. Thus the Hsenwi State
became divided into North Hsenwi and South Hsenwi.

About the time of the annexation there was trouble in the
Southern Shan States too. The Sawbwa of Kengtung had
killed the Burmese Political Officer* and had attacked and
burned down Kenghung, the capital of the neighbouring
Chinese Shan State of the same name* and the Sawbwas of
the Cis- Salween States of Mong Nai and Lawksawk joined
him. The Limbin Prince, a member of the Burmese Royal
Family, was at the head of the confederation.

But a British column under Colonel Stedraan marched up
from the plains and established a post in the high ground
east of the beautiful Inle Lake, 3,000 feet above the sea.
Here the Superintendent and Political Officer of the Shan
States had his headquarters.

The Pax Britannica was soon enforced. The Limbin
Prince surrendered, and the Superintendent and Political
Officer, accompanied by a column, marched north into
Hsenwi, as already stated, and a Superintendent of the
Northern Shan States was appointed, with headquarters
at Lashio.

All the chiefs acknowledged the British Government
except Sao Maha Nalao, Sawbwa of West Manglon, who
refused to meet the Superintendent and fled into the Wa
States. His elder brother, Sawbwa of East ManglSn, came
in and met the Superintendent and was appointed as chief,
not only of East, but of West Manglon too. I mention
this as Sao Maha Nalao, after many years of wandering in
the Wa States with his son and always refusing to meet any
British officer, came in and visited me at Tang-Yan in 1904
with his son, and finally accepted the hospitality of the
Southern Hsenwi Sawbwa and elected to live at Mong-
Yai, the capital of South Hsenwi

The Manglon Sawbwa was an old man and the father of
several children. He was half a Wa* but he was a Buddhist
He, too, lived in a mountain stronghold at Weng Takut
across the Salween, and until he visited Lashio for the

TJu Burma* Skan StmUs and the Tai 493

Viceroy’s Durbar had never seen a British headquarters
station. He was alarmed when he saw the aide-de-camp
wearing a diplomatic sword, and it needed all my power of
persuasion to reassure him before he could be induced to
follow that aide-de-camp into the Viceroy’s presence.
Needless to say, he was very kindly received with his two
little sons.

The late Hsipaw Sawbwa was another remarkable
character in the Northern Shan States, and had had a
varied career. He was the first of the Shan Chiefs to
acknowledge the British, and when he visited England had
the honour of being received by her late Majesty Queen
Victoria. His son, who has since succeeded him, was
educated at an English public school.

All the Shan chiefs pay tribute to the Government,
though in the early years after the annexation this was in
some cases only nominal, for I remember when I was at
Fort Stedman in 1891-92 the Kengtung Sawbwa used to
pay some wax candles, some gold and silver flowers, and a
pony, as annual tribute into the Treasury there, and the
Manglon Sawbwa up to 1905 never paid more than 500
rupees tribute, but then we expected him to keep the Was
in order.

The Superintendents of the Northern and Southern Shan
States are assisted by a staff of Assistant- Superintendents.

All these officers when European British subjects are
ex officio Justices of the Peace, and have District Magis-
trates’ powers, and Superintendents are Sessions Judges.

AU criminal jurisdiction in which the complainant or the
accused is a European, American, or Government servant,
or British subject not native to a Shan State, is withdrawn
from the chiefs of the states and vested in the Superin-
tendent or Assistant- Superintendents. In such cases the
criminal law in force in Upper Burma as modified by the
Shan States Laws and Criminal Justice Order is in force.

Superintendents and Assistant- Superintendents exercise
powers under the Foreign Jurisdiction and Extradition Act.

494 714 # Burmese Shan States and the Tai

The Superintendent exercises revisicmal powers in all
criminal cases, and ao capital punishment can be carried
out until the Superintendent’s sanction has been received

The Assistant-Superintendents act as advisers to the
chiefs under their control in the maintenance of peace and
order in their states, in the suppression of crime, in the
administration of civil and criminal justice, in the assess-
ment of taxes and collection of revenue, in the preparation
of the annual state budgets, in the carrying out of works of
public utility — such as the construction of cart-roads and
bridges and public buildings — and in many other ways, such
as census work, and collecting information for the Imperial
Gazetteer of India, and intelligence work.

Commissions fixed the boundaries between Siam, French
Indo-China, and China, and when the last was being done in
i goo two British officers were murdered by the wild Was,
one of whom was my predecessor at Tang-Yan in the North
Shan States, and I was then appointed in his place to be
Assistant-Superintendent there.

The Was inhabit the Trans-Salween country east of the
South Hsenwi State and south of the river Nam Ting and
north of East Manglon. They were unadministered, and
British officers visiting these parts had to go with a strong
military police escort. In 1896 the Superintendents party
had to fight its way across the Salween, and there was more
fighting there in 1897.

The Was are Animists and Head-Hunters, and believe
in spirits, mostly evil, haunting the woods and mountains,
and they like to have human skulls outside their villages,
because they believe that the 14 manes ” of the deceased
wanders around its skull, and thus prevents evil spirits
coming near. In fact it acts as a sort of ghostly patrol.
They are not pleasant neighbours, but I had them on my
eastern frontier at Tang-Yan. and no doubt they would
have liked to add my head to their collection if I had given
them an opportunity.

In 1904 an adventurer calling himself Hkun Li, after

The Burmese Ska* Stabs and the Tai 495

residing some time in the La-Wa country, collected a
following and invaded the South Hsenwi State. He was
credited with supernatural powers, and posed as an embryo
king, or “ Minlaung.” He committed dacoity and murder,
and attempted to collect revenue.

The South Hsenwi and Manglon levies were called out,
and, reinforced by a handful of military police, I accompanied
the Superintendent and assisted in breaking up the gang,
Hkun Li and several of his followers being killed in the
action, which took place ten miles north of my headquarters
at Tang-Yan.

The Mandalay- Lashio Railway was completed in 1902,
and another railway line is now being constructed in the
Southern Shan States.

The Sawbwas and their chiefs have constructed many
feeder roads to these lines, and when I was at Tang-Yan
the South Hsenwi and Manglon Sawbwas between them
made a hundred miles of cart-roads, with bridges, thus
opening up the country to wheeled traffic.

The Shan is fairer and taller than the Burman, and is
muscular and well-formed. He dresses in a pair of baggy
cotton trousers, with or without a jacket ; he wears a large
head-dress rather like an Indian pagri, and crowns it with a
limp, broad-brimmed grass hat. The Shan women dress
like their Burmese sisters, but with the addition of a head-
dress. The Shan man tattoos in blue often from the
waist to the ankle, and in red on his chest and arms. The
Shan braves, or fighting men, have little silver charms let
in under the epidermis of their arms to render them
immune from gunshot or sword wounds.

The Shan is superstitious and believes in magic and
enchantment, and though a good Buddhist, is often at the
same time an Animist.

He is very fond of gambling at festivals, and sometimes
is given to opium eating.

The Shans are thrifty people and harder workers than the
Burmese ; they are good cultivators, but excel as traders.

496 The Burmese Shan States and the Tat

The necessities of life are not so easily obtained in the
Shan Hills as in the fertile deltas and valleys of the
Irrawaddy and Menam, and the Shan has by the force of
circumstances become a trader with the plains, and caravans
of pack-bullocks pass to and fro all through the open season
between the interior and the railheads.

When the Shan trader is not rich enough to own
bullocks he becomes a porter, and often carries as much as
70 or 80 lbs. weight of goods twenty miles or more a day,
the goods being contained in large bamboo baskets slung
on a pole balanced on the shoulders.

The houses of the better class are clean and comfortable
and are more homelike than in Burma, for in the rainy
and cold seasons you will find the family often seated
round a glowing charcoal fire drinking tea out of china cups,
with which milk and sugar is never mixed, but only a pinch
of salt.

They are independent in character and are fond of
travelling and adventure, are cheerful and hospitable, and
ready to render help to each other. An innate restlessness
of character gives rise to frequent change of residence, so
that the inhabitants of a given locality are not always
native born to the locality.

The Shans are good weavers and dyers, using their own
natural vegetable dyes, they are fair blacksmiths, and some
of their gold and silver work is equal to the Burmese,
though not so bold in design perhaps. They make paper
from the paper mulberry, and use the natural oil of the
wood-oil tree for lacquer work. They make earthen pots
and practise wood carving, and are rough carpenters — not so
skilled, however, as the Burmese in this branch.

They cultivate rice mostly in the lowlands of the valleys
and depend on the mountain streams for irrigation, and
they also clear the highlands on the mountain side and
depend on the rainfall. All Shan villages have gardens.

The River Salween is the principal natural feature, and
throughout its course preserves — to quote the Gazetteer of

The Burmese Ska* States and the Ten 497

Upper Burma and the Shan Stotts — the character of a
gigantic ditch or railway cutting scooped through the bills,
which rise thousands of feet on either side. Owing to the
many rocks and rapids it is not navigable.

Another important natural feature is the geological fault
or rift running from the Goteik on the western side of the
Hsipaw State to the Kunlong Ferry and continuing up the
valley of the Nam Ting into China. This marks a line of
great geological disturbance. The Mandalay- Lashio Rail-
way crosses the Goteik Gorge on an iron girder bridge
800 feet above the stream and was a triumph of engineering
skill.

Limestone is much in evidence, and rivers have a
mysterious way of burrowing underground and coming out
again farther on.

Gold washing in the Salween and other streams is quite a
common practice, but the gold is only won in small quantities.
Silver and lead are more plentiful. Inferior coal has been
found in North and South Hsenwi.

The Southern Shan States Syndicate was carrying on
mining operations in 1914.

The beautiful Inle Lake is a noticeable feature in the
Southern Shan States.

The great Shan Plateau is west of the Salween and
runs south from the geological fault into the Southern
Shan States. Its average height is 3,000 feet. The
bracken fern is plentiful ; the crab-apple and wild raspberries
grow; on the hills around are pine woods, and oak and
chestnut are common.

Loi Leng is the highest hill in the Shan States, its peak
being nearly 9,000 feet high. It forms the centre of the
South Hsenwi State.

The Trans-Salween country is a medley of hills rising
higher and higher to the watershed between the Rivers
Salween and Mekong, and here the head hunters hold
high revels when the heads come home.

Along the border between Burma and the Shan States

VOL. XVI.

2 K

49# The Burmese Ska* States and the Tai

all kinds of game common to Burma are found, from an
elephant to a snipe. The cry of the white-faced gibbon, or
Hylobates hoolock , is a common sound in the Shan Hills
during the cold season.

Teak wood is found in the valley of the Salween and in
the Hsipaw State, but the forests have been spoilt to a
great extent by the cutting of green teak.

The sal, or Shore n robusta, is a common and useful tree
in the states, as are also the wood-oil tree, the silk cotton
tree, the paper mulberry, and the giant bamboo.

499

COMMERCIAL SECTION

THE NEW CONDITIONS FOR BRITISH
TRADE IN INDIA

By Thomas M. Ainscough, o.b.e.

Hi« Majesty’s Senior Trade Commissioner in India and Ceylon, who is at
present m London (Department of Overseas Trade), and is going on tour tn
the industrial centres to advise merchants and manufacturers as to openings
for British trade in India

It was only to be expected that the war and its lessons
wrought a great change in India and the trade conditions
obtaining therein for exporters from this country. In the
first place it was realized, as never before, what difficulties
could arise when outlying portions of the Empire had to
rely on the Mother Country for the most vital needs to
ensure the continuance of their industrial life. In this
difficult situation the Government of India led the way by
establishing the India Munitions Board in 1917, which,
primarily intended to meet the requirements of the war
situation, has now been merged into a Department of
Industries. They have been supported by all classes of
the community, Indian as well as European, and in this
way hundreds of manufacturing concerns have been floated
which can produce in India goods for which that country
had previously been dependent on exporters from England.

It is easy to see that this development will have a pro-
found effect on the nature of British exports from now
onwards. In the first place there is sure to be a great
demand for plant with which to equip the new factories that
are springing up in India. In that respect, unfortunately,
the British exporter is at the moment handicapped by the
di&culty of supplying these needs at short notice. Con-

500 New Conditions for British Trade in India

sequently the United States are for the present in an
advantageous position in this respect, both with regard to
the time of delivery and the price. Secondly, an increased
demand in stores and supplies of all kinds for these new
factories may be confidently expected. And this demand is
likely to continue for a considerable time.

On the other hand, the demand for certain manufactured
goods from this country is sure to diminish : and this state
of affairs will continue until the firms that handle those
classes of export have learned how to adapt themselves to
the new conditions. At the same time it should be remem-
bered that the rise in the standard of living in India will
produce a great demand for new commodities which hitherto
were either not exported to India at all, or in very small
quantities. Ultimately, therefore, we may look forward to
a very great extension of the whole basis of trade as between
Britain and India on lines hitherto not deemed possible.
Thus India will not only remain our best customer in the
overseas market, but will actually increase the lead she has
already established over other countries. Only it must be
borne in mind that conditions have been changed, and that
British exporters must needs adapt themselves to these new
conditions. Also it must be remembered that new and
powerful competitors are in the field, where previously the
position of the British exporter was deemed unassailable.
The uncertainties of the sea voyage during the war and the
restricted supplies from the home market must be deemed
the chief causes of this new situation. Indian buyers have
now established connections with American and Japanese
business houses, and that has made them grow accustomed
to look to these sources for goods which previously were
obtained almost exclusively from England. In a word,
through the circumstances caused by the war, India has
become, in every sense of the term, a competitive market.

Japanese activity in furthering her trade interests has
been very marked. The visible evidences of this new state
of affairs are not far to seek, and anyone who returns to

New Conditions for British Trade in India 501

India now would be immediately struck by them. In
Calcutta and Bombay oversea branches of Japanese banks
have been established. Japanese export and import
houses have their offices in all the leading cities. From
India's harbours Japanese steamers ply to all parts of the
world. In fact, in practically every branch of Indian com-
merce Japan has endeavoured to obtain a footing. In the
years 19 13-14 Japanese shipments only totalled in value
about ,£3,000,000. Since that date they have nearly
doubled in value every year. In the years 1918-19 the total
of ^22,349,000 was reached as compared to ^51,000,000
from the United Kingdom. Before the war the share of
Japan in the import trade was 2\ per cent, and for export
7^ per cent. In the years 1918-19 Japan had jumped into
the position of second place.

The imports are here given in the order of their im-
portance, and comprise : Cotton yam and piece goods
(47 per cent.), silk manufactures (6 per cent.), matches
(4 per cent.), iron, steel, hardware, cotton, hosiery, brass,
bronze, chemicals, paper, instruments and appliances, tea
chests, paints, beer, apparel, woollen manufactures, glass,
machinery, cement, earthenware, haberdashery, manufac-
tures of wood, toys, stationery, toilet requisites.

From this it will be seen that staple trades are the branch
of trade in which Japanese competition has been most suc-
cessful. In future their efforts will probably be most in-
sistent in textiles. Incidentally the interests of Japanese
traders are served by a large number of commercial
travellers and enquiry agents, who traverse the whole
country and are armed with a liberal supply of catalogues
and circulars. In spite of this, however, there has been a
set-back in Japanese trade in the year following the war,
which may serve as an indication that with the return of
normal conditions buyers are returning to their old markets.

Turning to American competition, we find that, in the
years 1913-14, that country exported to India goods to the
value of about ^3,000, 000. The conditions that favoured

502 New Conditions for British Trade in India

Japanese entry into the Indian market applied in the same
way to the United States. American trade has been able
to make use of the same new facilities : improved steamer
connection, the establishment of business houses, the enter-
prise of commercial travellers, the distribution of catalogues.
Every effort is made to adapt the goods to local require-
ments. In spite of the fact that the exchange is an adverse
factor, British manufacturers are often underquoted by
them, and the goods are supplied more quickly.

Turning to the items that are exported from the United
States, we find these to be chiefly : iron and steel machinery
of all kinds, canned provisions, motor-cars, and motor-
cycles. The first necessity for British exporters is to be in
a position to quote competitive rates. Further, it is im-
portant for them to be adequately represented in India by a
trained staff out there, either by having their own branches
and distributing arrangements, or, failing that, through
being served by energetic agents. Owing to difficulties of
various kinds, British exporters find it difficult to compete,
in some branches of trade, with American rivals. At the
same time we find Indian buyers taking British plant and
machinery simply because, although more expensive, they
have a high reputation for reliability, and the makers have
a longer experience of local conditions.

But American imports, as well as Japanese, will probably
continue to come to India. Japan is expected to retain the
trade for cheap bazaar articles, which were never catered
for by the British trader, and before the war formed more
or less a monopoly of Germany and Austria. Japanese
copper, sulphur, and brass are also likely to continue to
be imported. Moreover, the new machinery and plant that
has been already set up in Japan, or is planned, for turning
out printed, dyed, bleached, and coloured woven goods is
sure to mean strong competition with British manufacturers
in this class of goods. But paints, apparel, beer, paper,
hardware, iron and steel are articles where a decrease in the
amount exported from Japan can be looked for. With

New Conditions for British Trade in India 5°3

regard to imports from the United States, it is to be noted
that prices have risen sharply, and deliveries are now being
spread over a longer period.

With regard to the position in India, it must not be for-
gotten that she is at the present going through nothing
less than an industrial revolution, and the whole tendency
is to purchase locally wherever possible. Further, it must
be realized that for British manufactures to be readily
bought they must be offered at a competitive rate. Politics
do not enter very much into the matter. The bazaar dealer,
on the whole, does not exercise his mind so much as to the
country of origin of any particular article offered to him.
He wishes to have his requirements met at the lowest figure
possible. And what is true in this respect of the Indian
bazaar dealer applies to some degree to the British merchant.
He will not entirely ignore the foreign article, if it happens
to be cheaper.

It should not, however, be thought that I take a pessi-
mistic view as to the future of the British export trade to
India. On the contrary, it is possible to look forward to
great expansion in the future. But my advice to the British
manufacturer is, if possible, to go for himself to India, and
to see with his own eyes how India has indeed changed in
the last five years, and note the altered conditions. If he
is an exporter of goods which are in large and constant
demand, he cannot do better than arrange for his own
representation, or combine with others in so doing. Never
before in the history of our trading relations with India
have the opportunities been so good and promising as they
are to-day. For India has gained strength and stability
during the war, and is more prosperous than ever before.

504

THE FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION
OF JAPAN

(By Permission of the Japanese Consul-General in London,
from Information communicated by the Department of Finance)

The Budget

The General Budget for 1919-20, passed by the forty-first
Session of the Imperial Diet, totals yen 1,064,190,000
(£109,002,356) in revenue, of which the ordinary section
amounts to yen 839,140,000 (£85,951,000), and the extra-
ordinary section yen 225,049,000 (£23,051,214). Of the
expenditure aggregating yen 1,064,190,000 (£109,002,356),
the ordinary section claims yen 505,936,000 (£51,821,776),
and the extraordinary yen 558,253,000 (£57,180,477).

In framing the Budget for 1919-20, the Cabinet, which
witnessed the conclusion of the Armistice soon after its
formation, found itself confronted with a critical turn in the
affairs of the world. In view of the possibility of grave
effect being brought in consequence on our finance and
general economics, the Government felt it a matter of
urgent importance to devise measures for placing the
finance on the sound basis, so that they may be well pre-
pared to meet the demand for various undertakings that
may be occasioned on the restoration of peace. Having,
at the same time, due regard to the possible state of
revenue and expenditure in subsequent years, it was decided
that matters of a permanent nature involving large outlays
should be left untouched for deliberate treatment after-
wards. The Government has, in pursuance of that con-
sideration, adopted the policy of attending, so far as
circumstances admitted, to measures of national defence
and to expansion and encouragement of education, in-

TJu Financial and Economic Position of Japan 505

dustriea, and transport and communication services as
demanded by the elevadon of national status. At the same
time utmost endeavours were made to check the expansion
of ordinary expenses. As to increase of salaries of Govern-
ment officers and others and additional allotment called for
in various outlays in consequence of the general tendency
of the times, it was decided that a definite programme be
elaborated on economic affairs settling to normal condition,
and that in the meanwhile temporizing measures judged
necessary should be adopted.

Effects of the War

Since the outbreak of the Great War the arrival of
European articles having almost ceased in the Far East,
South Seas, and other markets of the world, their place
was taken up by those made in Japan. Besides, the supply
of war materials and others to the Allies occupies an im-
portant place on the list of increased exports. And the
imports, though affected by the war in some items, have
also been on an increase, owing to the brisk demand for
various materials occasioned by the unusual prosperity of
home industries. For this industrial boom are, of course,
responsible the ever-increasing exports on one hand, and
on the other the stoppage of imports of some articles from
Europe, thereby stimulating domestic production. The
growth of sea-borne trade for the year, however, was due
more to the advance of prices than to the increase in
quantities. Since the U.S.A. participated in the Great
War, restrictions on both exports and imports have been
enforced with greater severity by the Allies, while there
was no knowing when the shortage of bottoms and advance
of prices and freightage would be relieved. Then, towards
the end of the previous year, a peace overture was suddenly
made by Germany, and this was reflected on both foreign
and home markets, where operations of precaution were
manifest in anticipation that the end of the war would not
be far distant. This naturally affected the foreign trade,

506 The Financial and Economic Position of Japan

and tie exports began to fall off, especially after the con-
clusion of the Armistice in November, 1918. Fresh orders
were withheld, and even goods already ordered were
countermanded. On the other hand, the imports grew
with the arrival of goods previously ordered, such as raw
materials and foodstuffs. All this contributed to the diminu-
tion of trade balance that had been enormously in favour of
exports.

Exports

Exports to French India showed an increase of 166 per
cent., as against the previous year, those to British India of
100 per cent., and to Dutch Indies of 98 per cent. Still
larger increase is seen in the imports. The arrivals from
French India swelled by 650 per cent., that from Dutch
Indies 180 per cent., and from China no per cent, the
unusual proportion for the first two countries being chiefly
due to the increased shipment of rice to Japan. In
European trade, shipment to France gained by 45 percent,
but that to England and other countries recorded more or
less decrease, owing to the restrictions on imports, shortage
of bottoms, and other influences of the war, while exports
to Russia fell off by 99 per cent. The decrease rate cor-
responded to 1 1 per cent for the total volume of exports.
The imports from Russia declined by 48 per cent., and
those from France and other European countries also
showed a decrease, while, on the other hand, those from
England and Holland were increased, so that there was a
slight increase in the total imports. The increase of
exports to France was chiefly due to the large shipment of
habutae and waste silk to that country. Notwithstanding
the embargoes enforced on both exports and imports in
North America, purchases from U.S.A. and Canada grew
74 per cent, and 200 per cent, respectively, this latter being
accounted for by the marked increase in paper pulp. Saks
to U.S.A. and Canada were also increased by x 1 per cent,
and 69 per cent respectively. Trade with South America

The Financial and Economic Position of Japan 50 7

exceeded the level of the preceding year, due to increased
imports of wool, india-rubber, etc., and to expansion of new
markets in Brazil, Argentine, and Peru. The purchase of
wool having decreased, returns for African trade rather
shrank this year. On the whole, however, our relations
with Egyptian ports and Cape Town had been growing
closer in recent years. Australian trade was much im-
proved, the imports gaining by 48 per cent, and exports by
139 per cent.

Cotton cloth and yarns were sold largely to China, India,
and other countries in the Far East, habutse to England
and South America, and crapes chiefly to U.S.A. All
these substituted European manufactures which were scarce
during the war. Beans and starch went in large quantities
to Europe, where they were in demand as auxiliary food-
stuff. Shortage of European paper swelled the export of
Japanese substitutes to Australia and Far Eastern countries,
while waste silk was shipped to France and U.S.A. as
material for silk spinning. Copper and zinc were purchased
as war materials, the former by England, France, and
U.S.A., and the latter by England, but the demand for
them declined in the year under review.

Imports

The swell in cotton purchase is due to brisk exportation
of cotton cloth and yarns, most of the goods coming from
China and U.S.A. The striking advance in the price of
rice occasioned the import of Rangoon and Saigon rice to
a large amount The increase of iron, as shipped from
China and U.S.A., and machines and machinery mainly
from U.S.A, was stimulated by the prosperity of various
manufacturing industries and the starting of new enter-
prises. Apart from the increased home demand, beans
from China were required largely as material for soy-bean
oil, which found extended foreign markets during the year.
Be*Q-cakes as manure were much imported from China.
The declined supply from China of lump brass and bronze,

508 The Financial and Economic Position of Japan

zinc ores, and antimony is accounted for by the depression
of their refining industries, which in turn was caused by the
reduced demand for those metals from abroad. Ammonium
sulphate from England saw a decline because of the diffi-
culty of its import and the increase of domestic production.

As a member of the Allies, Japan, besides actually taking
part in the conduct of the war hand-in-hand with them,
also endeavoured to the utmost of her resources to extend
help to them, both financially and economically. Naturally,
Japan’s economic market was profoundly affected by the
war, either directly or indirectly, for it was unavoidable
that whatever economic changes appeared in Europe and
America should also be felt on these shores. Below will be
attempted a brief survey of our economic movement during
this memorable epoch of four years and a half.

Finance

When the European War broke out in July, 1914, Japan
soon entered it on the Allied side, and promptly took steps
to subjugate Tsingtao. The dislocation of the money
market of Europe had adverse effect on Japan, threatening
a recall at once of all her short-termed foreign loans. Our
money market was placed in a strained condition. Then
followed, one after another in quick succession, economic
disturbances of grave moment, such as the peril of voyage,
abnormal advance of marine-insurance rate, deranged con-
dition of exchange market, and so on. Our oversea trade
was thrown out of order, and the heavy fall in the raw silk
market — the most important export — inflicted a severe
blow to our economy. It was fortunate that it escaped
with relatively less harm than it would otherwise have been
but for the distance that separated Japan from the seat of
war, and for the fact that the policy of contraction she
had consistently pursued for several years past in finance
left the central coffers in comparatively easy condition.
The result was that the Treasury was enabled to pay
the Tsingtao expense without falling back on any special
financial devices.

The Financial and Economic Position of Japan 509

The year 1915 witnessed a favourable turn in the financial
and economic movement of Japan, due to succession of
orders arriving from Europe for war materials and from
the South Seas and neighbouring countries for Japanese
goods to take the place of imports that used to come from
Germany and other warring countries. Next, the growing
scarcity of the world’s tonnage exerted a favourable in-
fluence on the charterage and freight rate of Japanese
bottoms, with the consequence that the amount of her
“ invisible international receipt ” was materially increased.
Meanwhile, the dislocation of the economic condition of the
world stimulated the rise of various new enterprises in
Japan, especially chemical and mechanical industries, the
import of whose productions had become seriously
obstructed, this occasioning abnormal advance of the
market.

All these factors of economic activity acquired greater
impetus in 1916 — namely, increased demand for munitions
from the belligerent Powers and for the Japanese substitutes
from the Far Eastern countries and the South Seas. The
result of this state of tradal movement was shown in the
balance of trade being returned continuously in favour of
exports. Then the withdrawal of the world’s bottoms for
transport service and the destructive activity of the enemy
submarine occasioned greater scarcity of shipping available
for normal purpose of transportation, this accounting for the
unusual boom the Japanese shipowners experienced in
their business with enormous receipts realized from both
charterage and freightage. The situation of the international
account developed highly favourable to the credit account
of Japan, and her specie hoard grew apace. This general
economic tendency was reflected in the steady rise of prices
of commodities and in the striking activity of all economic
enterprises, which absorbed immense amount of funds.
Bank deposits and loans and clearing-house returns marked
a new record. Japan was now in a position to undertake
the issue of a dumber of foreign loans, and, moreover, to

510 Tk* Financial and Economic Position of Japan

redeem to some extent her foreign liabilities contracted
before the war. Amidst this state of universal boom a
rumour circulated towards the end of that year that Ger-
many had decided to propose peace gave a shock to a
section of the economic world, especially to the stock
market, in anticipation of possible sudden developments in
the market of the world. It experienced a slump, to be
soon restored to the normal condition. This incident served
as a good warning to our economic world.

In the first half of 1917, thanks to the continued pros-
perity of her oversea trade and the great prosperity of the
ship-building industry, Japan's economic activity reached
the highest water mark ever known before. Meanwhile, the
expansion of the scope of the war, with the necessity on the
part of the belligerents to face the situation, resulted in
restriction in the consumption of principal commodities, or to
the subjecting of them to control, thereby partially limiting
both exports and imports. Thus the development of our over-
sea trade experienced a great check. At home the greater
advance of prices of commodities and the increased inflow of
specie obliged the Government to adopt a special measure to
counteract the economic policy of the other countries, to
place the foreign trade under ban, and also to subject the
money market, volume of currency, prices of commodities,
and shipping under control. In the second half of the year
the economic movement experienced a check, but fortunately
it continued on the whole to move in a favourable direction.

In 1918 the downfall of Czardom in Russia and her inde-
pendent peace with Germany, the spread of Bolshevism in
Siberia, and the serious menace in consequence to the
frontier of Japan, this even compelling her to despatch
troops for its defence, brought about greater restriction on
shipping, transactions on staple commodities, and foreign
trade. However, it did not prevent the continued activity
of our trade with the South Seas and South America. At
the same time, import trade began expanding, export trade
lagging far behind It is noteworthy that even amidst

The Financial and Economic Position of Japan 511

these circumstances our business world continued lively, and,
indeed, a similar phenomenon was witnessed in the general
market The advances in prices at last provoked the loud
outcry of a section of people complaining of hard living, this
developing into riotous agitation in several towns. The
conclusion of the Armistice in November suddenly plunged
the war-time enterprises in depression, though at the same
time it raised hope of restored animation of normal enter-
prise. Both the money market and industries having been
on guard, the economic world did not experience any great
set-back even on the memorable occasion of the cessation
of the war.

THE ATTITUDE OF KRILOV TOWARDS
LITERARY WORK AND CRITICISM

I.

THE RICH MAN AND THE POET

( Translated by John Pollen, gi.e., ll.d.)

With rich grandee a Poet issue raised,

And Jove implored for his support.

They both were summoned to the Court.

They came : one lean and half-starved and dazed.

Scarce clothed and bare of feet
The other all in gold, puffed up with proud conceit.

“ Olympian Autocrat, have mercy now !

O Cloud compeller ! Lightning hurler! thou”

(The Poet cried). “ How have I sinned ’gainst Thee,
That from my youth I suffer Fortune’s ban ?

No rest! No rest ! and all I have and gain
Merely imagination vain !

The while my rival here so proud —

Of wit and merit void — your image great outclasses !

The Palace girt by an adoring crowd,

A life of luxury in clover passes !”

11 And is this really naught —

Thy lyre to latest age with sounds will ring ?”

(Said Jupiter). “And to remembrance brought
Grandchild and great grandchild thy songs will sing.

Hast thou not fame and name thyself secured ?

While I to him mere earthly ease assured.

Trust me ! Were he to knowledge more inured,

And were it possible for him to see
His utter emptiness compared with thee,

He’d grumble more than thou against the lot by him
endured.”

5*3

SIR HENRY COTTON

Br Madame Olga Novikoff

It often seems to me that we do not sufficiently value the
best things in life, particularly some of the pleasures and
delights that are always within our reach. There are, for
instance, certain books — do they not lead us into the society
of the best and noblest of our fellows, mould our thoughts
and guide our opinions, act on us as a happy influence to
awaken and stimulate independent thought and reasoning ?
It is wrong to pass over such books in silence, for to do so
is to leave unnoticed pleasures for which many a mind may
yearn. To this category belongs, in my opinion, “ Indian
and Home Memories,” a book as fresh now as on the first
day of publication, whose author, Sir Henry Cotton, having
spent more than thirty-five years of his life in India and
occupied there the responsible posts, first of judge, and
later on of Lieutenant-Governor of Assam, was a great
authority on Indian affairs. On his return to England in
1906 , Sir Henry was elected a Member of Parliament,
where his defence of Indian feelings has always been con-
spicuous by its solid foundation on fact and experience, and
where his past judicial activity served him in such good
stead, as much from the dialectical standpoint as from that
of an extreme conscientiousness in relation to every question
upon which he touched.

Of Sir Henry’s reminiscences I will refer to only such as
concern ourselves — in other words, the pages that touch
upon Russia's r61e in Tibet, and upon the author’s inter-
view with that sincere friend of Russia and that enthu-
siastic champion of sobriety, the great Gladstone. Let me

vol. xvi. 2 L

514

Sir Henry Cotton

turn, first of all, to far-away Tibet, and afterwards to the
question that unhappily touches us so closely, that of the
unrestrained sale and consumption of alcohol, so rapidly
abolished by the Imperial Order and infamously reintro-
duced by the Bolsheviks, together with their other infamous
measures.

It is obvious from Sir Henry’s descriptions that every
mention of Russia’s policy in Asia was immediately con-
verted by Lord Beaconsfield and his party into a scare.
Even the Viceroy of India at the time, a man of wide
culture and intelligence, did not escape this contagion, and
on one occasion, indeed, the rumour having reached Simla
that a stray Mongolian Buddhist had forced his way to the
almost unapproachable Dalai Lhama, he grew seriously
alarmed, and saw in the incident a dangerous Russian
intrigue. These feelings, however, did not prevent the
Anglo-Russian Entente from becoming a fact some years
later.

But let us return to the distant timorous Tibet of that
time, whose somewhat childlike prayer to its gods was that
it might be left in peace and saved from the attentions of
any uninvited guests that may find excuse or reason for
entering its sacred precincts. Tibet, with its beloved
Dalai Lhama, had acknowledged the supremacy of China,
and was, as it seems, perfectly happy and contented in its
inviolable isolation : thanks to the distance that separated
her from her ally, and turned that intimacy into a very
platonic one. In England, however, at that time, they
grew excited on account of the above-mentioned Mongolian,
and sent to Lhassa the ironically called 41 peace-loving
expedition/' Sir Henry, however, at the time did not give
it that euphemistic title. Things have changed, however,
even in distant Tibet I do not know whether a curious
report has reached English ears to the effect that the last
Dalai Lhama, so far from being afraid of foreign faces,
some years later even negotiated with Russia for his
personal visit to the Emperor Nicholas 11. This naturally

Sir Henry Cotton 515

would have been a great event in Tibet, and something
new and very amusing for Petrograd.

Let us turn now to another question touched upon by Sir
Henry, a question of vital interest to Russia — that of
sobriety. I will quote Sir Henry’s words on this subject,
in connection with his reminiscences of that kind Slavophil,
Gladstone :

“ I found Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone quite alone, with the
exception of Mrs. Drew, who was not well enough to come
to table, and remained lying on a couch. There were no
servants admitted during the meal, so that complete privacy
and frankness of conversation was possible, and wehelped our-
selves from the sideboard, Mr. Gladstone refusing assistance
in carving or in any other way. He spoke of his departed
son William with emotion, and pressed me to tell him of my
recollections of him as a young man. After that the con-
versation somehow drifted on temperance, and he indulged
in reminiscences of his own past In his youth there had
been heavy drinking at table, especially of port, in which
he had himself shared, but he had early broken himself of
the habit 1 By drinking nothing,’ said he, ‘you can easily
cure yourself from any desire to drink. And so I trained
myself until during a long day’s tramping on the Scotch
moors I would need to drink nothing at all, not even water.
Give me now a glass or two of good sound claret, and I
want no more.’ Then he asked me what I was accustomed
to drink in India, and I said two or three long glasses of
whisky and soda. 'Too much I’ he interposed; ‘one a
day should be enough.’ And when I ventured to suggest
that with the heat and exhaustion of the climate some
greater stimulus than that was occasionally wanted — 4 Not
at all, not at all*

“ Then,” continues Sir Henry Cotton, 44 1 boldly raised
the subject of India, and referred to the difficulties and
intricacies of the problem we were destined to face in that
country. He lifted his hands, and in a tone of pathos
cried : 4 All true 1 all true I Of th«£ I feel sure. But who

516 Sir Henry Cotton

is enough for these things ? It all comes too late for me.
I am too old to take up any big question now f At last
he said he must rest”

This little page of Gladstonian reminiscences interests me,
and reminds me of countless occasions on which Gladstone
spoke of the advisability of encouraging tea-drinking
among the people. Indeed, there were many who even
laughed at his enthusiastic advocacy of this harmless
beverage. He himself, I am told, never limited himself to
one large cup, but could do with many, and that draws a
curious parallel between the great Gladstone and some of
ray Tamboff peasants, on the occasions when they came to
tell me their troubles, and I also offered them tea.

It has always been my dream to see India, and it was
also the dream of my brother Alexander to inspect the
magnificent scenery, the numerous monuments, the different
striking nationalities, the beauty of which has often been
described in Russian books, and is grandly painted by our
Vereschagin. When I was in England during the Slavonic
agitation I had the chance of being asked to go out to
stay with an English official. The invitation was tempting
— but at that time I was very young, and suddenly got
frightened at the idea that the presence of a Russian in an
English official house in India could do harm to my host.
So I declined the invitation, an action which, of course, was
absurd, as they were sure to know their interests better
than I. That did not prevent me, however, from travel-
ling in my imagination to Hindustan, and I naturally
enjoyed conversations on India, and I liked to see that
Sir Henry, with all his sympathies for the Indian people,
was always guided by his great sense of duties to his own
country. However that may be, his remarks testify to the
outspokenness of his political views.

517

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SECTION

THE QUEST OF ANTIQUITIES*

By Warren R Dawson

The many visitors who inspect the antiquities m the Egyptian galleries of
the British Museum, and who have before their eyes the masterpieces of
the greatest of all ancient civilizations, must be affected in various ways by
the great array of objects they see One impression, however, can scarcely
be otherwise than common to all temperaments, and that is the atmosphere
of stately austerity and calm which pervades the great gallery The statues
of the august personages who sit stolidly on their thrones, or the massive
sarcophagi which embraced the mortal remains of the Pharaohs or their
nobles, seem to be the very embodiment of decorum, dignity, and power
One would imagine that their entrance into then resting place in the
museum would have been accomplished in the most decorous and dignified
manner, and with pomp and circumstance befitting their traditions, and
yet we have to learn, by the narrative Sir Ernest Budge now lays before us,
of the tortuous and adventurous paths by which many of these antiquities
journeyed from the caches in which their ancient mmistrants hid them to
the haven they now occupy in the great cache prepared for them by the
Trustees of the Museum One could scarcely imagine, moreover, before
reading these volumes, that the Egyptologist who sits as stolidly as the
statues he guards in a study on the floor above them is the agent who
devised and earned out the deeds of “dernngdo which snatched so
many antiquities out of Egypt and safely deposited them in London
Sir Ernest Budge’s activity is astounding Since his student days in the
seventies he has published about 130 volumes, many of them bulky
tomes involving the transcription of hundreds of lines of hieroglyphic,
Coptic, cuneiform, and other characters He has prosecuted his researches,
discharged his official duties at the Museum, and, as we now learn, has
made no fewer than seventeen expeditions to Egypt and Mesopotamia on
behalf of the Museum Added to this, one must suppose a minimum time
for eating and sleeping, and we have a picture of crowded years of ant like
activity and industry

* “ By Nile and Tigris ” — a narrative of lourneys id Egypt and Mesopo-
tamia on behalf of the Bntrsh Museum, between i<86 and 1913, by Sir
E. A. Walhs Budge, Kt, Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Anoquftiea,
Bnbah Museum. London, John Murray 2 voU., Sva, 1910. Price
3 gurnets net.

5*8

The Quest of Antiquities

It must be frankly admitted that in the two handsome and well-illustrated
volumes which we are now examining the author has provided us with a
narrative of the greatest interest His introductory reminiscences of the
late Dr Samuel Birch and other Orientalists of the last generation are no
less interesting than the vivid picture he paints of travel and life between
Baghdad and London , but all this is incidental to the main purpose of
the work, which is an account of the missions he undertook to acquire
antiquities for, and under the instructions of, the British Museum Trustees
As regards the acquisition of Assyrian and Asiatic monuments, there is
little comment to make. The British Museum was the authorized holder
of certain sites from which, in the absence of the excavator, a leakage of
antiquities became apparent, and objects emanating from the Trustees
concession were coming into the “antica” market Sir Ernest Budge’s
primary duty was to investigate and rectify this abuse, and from these
journeys incidentally he returned with many other spoils acquired in
various ways It is, however, of the Egyptian journeys and their results
that we would more particularly speak Under local law, the details of
which have been modified from time to time, all Egyptian antiquities are
the property of the Government, and all treasure trove has to be rendered
to the authorities, by whom alone permission to excavate can be granted
Whatever we may think of the principle, there is no doubt that the law as
formulated was ill-conceived and worse executed, and the administration ot
the Service of Antiquities was, and is, anything but perfect, and in the
teeth of all regulations clandestine dealing m antiquities has been vigorously
earned on, and a great trade done with private collectors and the repre-
sentatives of European museums Under the two periods of administra-
tion by the late Sir Gaston Maspero technical difficulties were largely
overcome by his charming and diplomatic personality, for he generally
succeeded id maintaining the official standpoint and at the same time he
satisfied all parties, both native and foreign, and if the letter of the law was
not stnctly complied with, at least matters proceeded smoothly In the
intervening period, however, the administration was m the hand of persons
less gifted with Maspbro's peculiar qualifications, and the tactless and
rigorous methods employed to enforce the law had no other effect than to
make the zest of antiquities all the keener, and a steady flow of them was
smuggled out of the country.

Rightly or wrongly — we will not presume to sit in judgment — Sir Ernest
Budge determined that the British Museum collection should continue to
acquire its share of all the antiquities it needed, if not with the consent of
the Egyptian authorities, then directly in opposition to them Again and
again he tracked down Ins treasure, and to secure and export it became a
battle of wits, a battle in which he was always the victor. As an instance
of this we may cite the case of the group of papyri — those of Am, No,
Antuu, and others (VoL I , p. 123 U uq.). Sir Ernest Budge and the
Service of Antiquities were both informed of the “find,” and both were
determined to acquire it. To cut a long story short, he secured and hid
the papyri before M. Grtfbeut, 0/ the Service, arrived. Gr^bant caused the
house in which they were stored to be sealed and guarded, bet Sir Ernest

5^9

The Quest of Antiquities

■ecu red his treasure by undermining the back wall of the house under
cover of darkness, and by this rat like means outwitted the guards who
were potted in front By means far more subtle he succeeded in getting
his papyn from Upper Egypt to the coast, where, by another manoeuvre,
they left the country, and finally arrived at the British Museum, whilst the
finder continued his travels eastward
The author tells us much, but he whets our appetite for more We
gather from his account, for instance, that the Papyrus of Am was seen by
him tn situ in its owner’s tomb, which was presumably inviolate, but he
tells us nothing about this tomb or its other contents , indeed, its very site
would seem to be unknown to all but him

On the same adventurous journey the famous Tell el Amarna Tablets
were secured for the British Museum, and the fight by which they were won
is vivid and interesting , but perhaps the episode of the orange box, which
attaches to a later journey, is the most original of all (Vol II , p 351)
Sir Ernest Budge had secured the missing portion of an important Greek
papyrus, and the authorities, who were aware of this, put every difficulty in
his way to prevent his making off with it, and the Customs officials were
warned to be particularly on the alert The papyrus was laid by its captor
between the sheets of a packet of souvenir photographs, and Sir Ernest on
his departure from Egypt carried these, his greatcoat, and a box of oranges
which he purchased He checkmated the railway officials who were
looking out for him, and had then the Customs officers to deal with
These latter demanded his orange box, and he made the most stubborn
resistance to handing it over The excitement became intense as the
officials naturally supposed that it concealed the papyrus, hence his
reluctance to have it searched Finally Sir Ernest, with an ill grace gave
in , the box was opened and found to contain — oranges , but dunng the
scuffle he had handed his great-coat and the packet of photographs to his
servant, who bore them safely away 1
w Nile and Tigris ” is a book of captivating interest, but it is amazing
reading. It would be amazing enough if the adventures there related with
such candour had been undertaken on behalf of a dauntless private
collector, but when we reflect that Sir Ernest Budge was the official repre-
sentative of a great British Government department, who mstigated, aided,
abetted, and approved, it gives us furiously to think whether in the
interests of science the time has not come for a thorough overhaul of the
entire law relating to antiquities. Now that Egypt is a Bntish protectorate,
the Bntish Government should surely consider the necessity of using its
influence with the local authorities whereby a just and equitable system
might be formulated, to the end that every great Museum or Institution
which will undertake the proper conservation and publication of its
treasures shoti be able to obtain a fiur shore of antiquities by more orthodox
m«ans. We know too well that, things being as they are, if Sir Ernest
Budge had not succeeded in obtaining his specimens, the representative
of some foreig n museum would have done so, were he clever enough, but
this does sot affect the principle. Apart, however, from the mam issue,
there b no doubt that Sir Ernest Budge accomplished his tasks with

Egyptological Notes

brilliant success, and u the result the Bn tub Museum cohort** is
ennehed by many unique and wonderful objects; but we cannot take leave
of this interesting book without a regret that the shawabtt figure of the
Pharaoh Amenophis 11. was not replaced upon the mummy of the King,
instead of forming, as it now does, part Of the British Museum collection
(Vol. II., p 366)

EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES
By Warren R. Dawson

3 Iiv the notes on the religious reforms of Akhnaton in the last issue of
this Review,* reference was made to the rigid and fixed order of precedence
which obtained throughout the Pharaonic period of history In this
connection some notes on a contemporary document which gives a
classified list of the hierarchy may be of interest. The British Museum
has long possessed a document probably written about the time of the
twenty-first dynasty, which is generally known as the Hood Papyrus t
After the manner of Egyptian hieratic compositions it bears a most
comprehensive and grandiloquent title, which may be rendered as follows

“Here begin the instructions whereby the ignorant as well as the
learned may know exactly all that the Ptah has created and Thotb
recorded, the heavens and the stars, the earth and all that therein is,
the gushing waters, the mountains, the inundation, the oceans, as
well as the things which are beneath the canopy of Rfc, and all the
hierarchy established on earth ”

According to the title, this little document of two pages promises to be
a ven table handbook to a knowledge of the universe, and after a mention
of the name of the copyist, one Amenemopet, it plunges straight into a
catalogue of all things animate and inanimate

The first section enumerates the sky, the stars, the phenomena of
nature, and water and land in its various aspects, especially the former,
land being treated of only in its relation to water , and the second section
deals with the hierarchy, beginning with God and Goddess, the spirits of
the dead, then the reigning King and his wife Next follow the princes,
governors, and the higher cinl and administrative officers of the State.
These are succeeded by the officers of the Pharaoh and his court, the
nomarch &, military dignitaries and civil servants After these are
viceroys and local governors of provinces and subject states.

It will thus be seen that hitherto all the officers mentioned (below the
rank of the royal family) have been secular as opposed to religious, and
the following section opens with the pnesthood. The first prophet of
Amoo precedes the high-pnest of Rfe, a natural order under the Theban

♦ S*pra t p. 338.

t No. io,aos. It was published m facsimile with a transcript transla-
tion and commentary as long ago as 1888 by Maspero in the second volume
of his £tvdtt E&ftuvm.

Egyptological Notes 5*i

dynastic*. The religious functionaries are curiously punctuated by the
insertion of a number of official* of the palace, after which the enumeration
of clergy and laity of the temples is resumed, down to the attendant*,
potter*, bakers of various kinds of sacrificial loaves and cakes, *»d
craftsmen in wood, stone and metals attached to the service of the temples,
when the narrative abruptly comes to an end in the middle of a word

Any kind of commentary on this interesting papyrus would be out
of place on the present occasion The above has merely been stated
to show what an elaborate sense of order the Egyptians possessed , nor is
this document unique Scraps of a duplicate text were discovered
amongst a mass of papyrus fragments on the site of the Raracsseum at
Thebes,* and a fuller and much more complete version, at present
unpublished, exists in the Gollemscheff collection In the main, the
order of precedence is borne out by the monuments, although several titles
mentioned in the papyrus have not been found elsewhere, and, on the
other hand, a certain number with which we are familiar do not occur
in the list This may be partly accounted for by the fact that many titles
held by the Egyptian aristocracy, and which are set out at length in their
tombs, were merely honorific, and did not imply any definite or traditional
function A detailed study of this text raises many interesting problems
as to the origin, nature and order of the titles, the investigation of which
involves fhe whole history of ancient Egypt political, mythological, and
legendary.

4 The Critical Study of Egyptian Art — The Egypt Exploration
Society has recently been most fortunate in securing the services of
Monsieur Jean Capart to lecture on Egyptian art f The study of ancient
art in general and Egyptian art in particular has been pursued in a some
what haphazard and uncritical manner, and the time is fully npe for
a more systematic handling of the subject Monsieur Capart is known to
a wide circle of readers by the numerous sumptuous publications which
bear his name, and a new volume on the critical study of Egyptian
art which covers the whole field is already in the press, and its appearance
eagerly awaited.

In spite of the excellent work done by Perrot and Chipiez, \ by the late
Sir Gaston Maspero,§ and others, the systematic study of Egyptian art is
hampered by a number of causes, which the lecturer described These
are (i) The hurried and sparsely recorded discoveries of early excavators,
and the hazard* of discovery, and the inevitable gaps in the senes ,
(a) the dispersal of objects in van o us museums, (3) the uncritical
accumulation of objects in the museums , (4) the ahsence of a compre
hensive collection of plaster casts , (5) the imperfection and inadequacy of

* Hieratic Papyn and Ostraka from the Ramtsseum , London, 1898,
Plate lxm

I At the Royal Society’s Rooms, on March *3, 19*0
t HtsUnrt de r Art dans r A ntiquxti. Tome I , L'Egypte.

S Etudes sur l Art ftgyphcn, Pans, 1912, and numerous separate
memoires.

5 « Egyptological Notes

publication*, and the different methods sod styles of illustration employed,
which makes comparison difficult ; and finally, (6) the mass of unpublished
documents which still await proper treatment in the British Museum,
the Louvre, the Turin Museum, and, in fact, in all the great collections.

In addition to the above, the subject teems with internal difficulties.
There is a lack of literary tradition ; there is no Egyptian Fausanias ; the
names of the artists are unknown to us, and we fail to find analogies with
other countries in tracing definite schools of art Again, the varying
quantities of documents of the same date from one locality, and indeed
from a single tomb, embarrass us. Another great problem is an oft-
recurring one — namely, the usurpation of monuments by later Kings, the
misconception of which has thrown the chronology of the subject into
chaos.

The history of Egyptian art is not so much a record of progress as the
history of deviations and derivations (as far as rigid conservatism would
permit) from a very ancient standard of perfection. With these pre-
liminaries, each of which was illustrated by apt examples, Monsieur Capart
proceeded to discuss the task which lies before us at the present time, the
greatest and first of which is a critical examination of origins. We must
next beware of preconceived ideas, which bias the mind and warp the
judgment. We must draw logical conclusions from established facts,
however disturbing to our pet theories the results may be. Art has
always been an irresistible peg on which to bang a mass of hypotheses and
dogmas. We must content ourselves for the present with making faithful
use of our materials, and with realizing that the absolute beginnings
of Egyptian art are still beyond our reach ; much hard work must be done
and many gaps must be filled before we can set about the task of building
up a continuous history of the art of ancient Egypt.

5 2 3

CORRESPONDENCE

“ A FA IB HEARING AND NO FAVOUR ”

THE PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK IN
ENGLAND

By Dr. Michael D. Volonakis

Being a Greek myself, I have always admired the earnest and very
active pursuit of classical studies, principally Greek literature, by the
British people, moat especially at Oxford and Cambridge, those venerable
strongholds of Greek scholastic learning Also I have often read with
delight the opinions of leading scholars and prominent statesmen as to
the high value of such education

Owing to the zealous study of the treasures of the ancient Greek spirit,
as revealed to the Western World since the Renaissance, the British Empire
has produced most distinguished scholars and learned students of the distant
past, who successfully led the youth of their day to a better conception
of political duty and to higher ideals, embracing the welfare not only of
the British but of the whole of humanity
From the schools and universities of the kingdom, imbued with classical
culture, recalling the ancient Hellenic and Roman world, there came forth
authon of monumental works, the great pioneers of British statesmanship
and administration, veritable ornaments of society, discoverers in the field
of literature, science and art, who have held their country’s reputation
high in the councils and judgments of the world

I have been happy enough in visiting — on a special mission — some of
the most famous English schools, and witnessed the progress made in
Greek, studies, but I was very sorry to hear that the number of students
of that language “to which,” according to Professor Arthur Headlam,
“ the world owes mental discipline, humanism, political wisdom and the
love of scientific truth,” has been steadily decreasing

Headmasters and professors have informed me that many students
were beginning to consider Greek, like Latin, a dead language, and useless
for practical life.

’Hus made me think that the study of Greek would be followed up with
more seal, if certain modifications were introduced in the system of teach-
ing, thus enabling parents and students to see that this reform would be
to their own advantage as well as to that of the community in general
This shght reform would extend to the method of pronunciation, which
must be rapidly replaced in all the schools by that practised by modem
Greeks. This alteration could be helped forward by the professors who are
appointed in the Universities and colleges for teaching modern Greek

524 The Pronunciation of Greek in England

Such a reform, I am sure, would not militate against the most arbitrary
Erasmian arguments, for it is almost universally admitted that the pro-
nunciation of modem Greek u not only handed down traditionally by the
Byzantines to the modem Greeks, but also that this pronunciation is con-
sonant with that which began to form in the fifth century b c. and was
crystallized in the Greco-Roman era *

Otherwise it may be considered from a practical point of view as a waste
of time to try to learn a language not as it is actually pronounced by the
nationals of that country, but according to foreign prescriptions, or as it may
possibly have been pronounced thousands of yean ago

The modern Greek pronunciation would considerably help the young
to learn modern Greek easily, and so make them feel the joy of learning
a living and a useful language, or as the distinguished Professor Spencer
Wilkinson states, “ to have the sense of having acquired a new power
Furthermore, the study of Greek, m accordance with the noble British
traditions for Itttera humanwres , would be revived and maintained in the
higher grades of education

Greeks, as is well known, preponderate as merchants and seamen in the
Eastern Mediterranean

Owing to their wide commercial connections they are frequently brought
into contact with the British, the great seafaring and manufacturing people,
and consequently British interests, which are so prevalent in those waters*
would greatly benefit thereby.

This affinity of interests between the two peoples, cemented by tradi-
tional and mutual sympathy, will be highly strengthened and consolidated
by a better and wider understanding of the two languages.

* Some instances confirm it As is well known, Plato in “ Kratylus M tells

us that his contemporaries instead of the / perversely use either el or n
We also know that a verse from the Delphic oracle quoted by Thucydides
and running thus, ** A Dorian war will come and a plague with it," raised
a vehement discussion amongst the Athenians owing to the employment
of a word the sound of which bore two meanings — namely, times and
famine, and lotmes and plague The istaasme , therefore, commenced at
that time can also be seen m later inscriptions, in manuscripts and
in the prejudice which existed against it among the Latins.

5*5

LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

OUR REVIEW OF BOOKS

Life of Lord Kitchener By Sir George Arthur In three volumes
(Maomllan ) 1930.

(Rctnewtd by Lieut -General F H Tvrrell)

It is just four years since Lord Kitchener met his mysterious fate, and
the myth of his survival, which for a time excited the hopes of some of
those nearest and dearest to him, has long since been finally dispelled
The story of his strenuous and brilliant career is told m these three
crowded volumes by his fnend and confidant, Sir George Arthur, who sums
up his hero’s epitaph in the words " He lived for his country , has served
his country , he died in her service His country will not forget "

He was born in Ireland, through the accident of his father having
purchased an estate there, but there was no Irish blood m his veins nor
Irish sentiment in his nature

He was a quiet boy, not physically strong, for he outgrew his strength,
and consequently was not good at games , he never went to a public
school, but was educated at home, and was in consequence more cultured
and better informed than most of his contemporaries

His father, Colonel Kitchener, had been in the 13th Hussars and
wished his son to follow his career in the cavalry , but the boy's genius
was mathematical, and his father wisely allowed him to follow the bent of
his mind , and he obtained a commission m the Royal Engineers at the
age of seventeen He had no advantages of birth or wealth , he owed his
rapid advancement solely to the good opinion formed of his character and
qualities by those under whom he served, or who came in contact with
him Carlyle has defined genius as an infinite capacity for taking pains
Kitchener’s genius was of this description, plodding rather than volatile ,
he planned and prepared for all eventualities with care and forethought,
and he left nothing to chance, but he was quick in decision and prompt
in action

Qnce he had made up his mind, he could not be turned from his pur-
pose , he despised argument and declined to enter upon it When he
joined the corps of Royal Engineer* he came under religious influences
It might be supposed that the study of the exact sciences would be apt to
inculcate a diataste for theology , but, m fact, a larger proportion of
religiously minded men are to be found in the scientific branches of the
army, and in the good old days of the purchase system the officers of
those branches were wont to be classified by their comrades of the cavalry

5^6

Reviews vud Notices

and the line under the three headings of “Mad, Married, or Methodist”
Kitchener’s religion took the form of attachment to the ritualistic practices
and doctrines which were then beginning to permeate the life of the
Anglican Church ; and be became a member of the Army Guild of the
Holy Standard, and remained sd till the end of his life. His religious
convictions probably influenced his acceptance of employment on the
Palestine Exploration Fund, which first introduced him to the sphere of
Eastern life and politics. When he was a cadet at Woolwich he had
already begun the study of Hebrew as a recreation ; and he was keenly
interested in the geography and archaeology of the Holy Land.

The opportunities afforded by military service in our widespread British
Empire, with its various peoples and its varying climates, make the British
soldier a man of the world in the best sense of the term, and dispose him
to pity the ignorance of his continental brother-in-arms, whose experience
of the world is confined to the military district within which his corps has
its fixed and permanent abode. But few British officers have had such
wide fields and such varied experiences of service as Lord Kitchener of
Khartoum. His early employment was as an Engineer officer, surveying
and mapping Palestine, Cyprus, and the Peninsula of Sinai ; but the know-
ledge thus gained of Oriental men and manners recommended him to Lord
Beaconsfield as one of the Vice-Consuls whom he was appointing to
superintend the introduction of reforms into the Turkish Empire, with the
vain hope of converting that moribund monarchy into an efficient barrier
against the further advance of Russia in the Near East This grandiose
scheme was upset by Mr. Gladstone’s accession to power, whose first care
was to reverse the policy and to cancel the appointments of his predecessor.
Kitchener lost his job, but after a brief spell of home service he heard the
East calling him, and fulfilled the wish of his father that he should be
a cavalry officer by joining the Egyptian Army and becoming Major of the
single cavalry regiment of the land which had once sent forth the horse-
men of the Pharaohs and the Mamelukes. He took a share in all the
desultory fighting with the Dervishes in the Red Sea littoral and the
confines of Egypt, and became successively Adjutant-General of the
Egyptian Army, and then its Commander-in-Chief or Sirdar, that title being
used by the Turks to denote an independent command. In this capacity
he planned and carried out the reconquevt of the Egyptian or Eastern
Sudan, proving himself to be a strategist and a tactician of the highest order.

In the crowning victory at Omdunnan, ten thousand Dervishes were left
dead in the field, while the loss of the victors, both in British and native
troops, did not exceed fifty. In describing the gallant charge of the arst
Empress of India** Lancers in this battle. Sir George Arthur, in a note,
makes the curious misstatement that “the sist Lancers had only joined
the British Service (from the EJ.C.) in x86x, and had not seen service
since a detachment acted as a guard to Napoleon at St. Helena.” The
regiment was only raised in 1858, during the Mutiny, previous to which
time the East India Company had no corps of European cavalry in
its army.

To the command of the Indian Army he was warmly welcomed by tbs

Reviews and Notices

5*7

Viceroy, Lord Curzon ; bat ns the poet Saadi says : “ Two Dervishes can
sleep under one blanket, but one kingdom cannot contain two kings I”
Lord Cromer and Kitchener had worked in perfect harmony in Egypt,
unhampered by councils, rules, or regulations-these latter they ma de as
they went along. But in Simla Kitchener found himself tied up in red
tape, confronted at every step by the mm possum us of some finance
minister or Accountant-General. Instead of the rule-of-thumb methods
on which he relied, he found himself involved in an endless tangle of
routine and circumlocution. It was patent even to a newcomer that Army
Headquarters were paperlogged with a plethora of correspondence and
minutes-writing, and its work impeded by the defective co-ordination of
departments, and the overlapping of their functions. Lord Curzon himself
had written to Kitchener before his arrival : u I regard military administra-
tion in India as bound up in interminable writing and over-centralization,
from which I have been doing my best to relieve it.” And not long after
taking up his command Kitchener entirely endorsed this judgment:
“I find I have hardly a moment here in this awful system of doing
nothing but write minutes, which apparently make up the Government of
India ! To get anything done, however small, under the present system
is the work of a lifetime ; and as soldiers only hold their billets for five
years, the result is evident, and is apparently what the Government of
India like. ...”

In Great Britain the Secretary of State for War, who had at first been
only the mouthpiece of the Army in Parliament, had gradually encroached
upon the functions of the Commander-in Chief until finally he usurped
them altogether ; and a similar process was going on in India, the Military
Secretary, who was a Member of the Viceroy’s Council, assuming an inde-
pendent authority ; this Lord Kitchener would not brook, and when Lord
Curzon backed up the Military Secretary a struggle commenced between
the two strong men which led to the resignation of the Viceroy, and
Kitchener gained his point.

After the expiration of his tenure of the Indian Command he succeeded
his friend and patron Lord Cromer as British Agent in Egypt, where he
proved as able and successful in the Cabinet as in the field.

He was called from his civil duties on the unexpected breaking out of
war with Germany in August, 1914, to take the place of the civilian
Secretary of State for War, and to prepare a totally unprepared nation for
a struggle such as it had not been engaged in for a century. He surpassed
all his previous achievements and proved himself a second Carnot in the
arts of organizing victory and improvising armies.

These volumes contain two portraits of Lord Kitchener, one from the
picture by Horsfall in the National Portrait Gallery, another in Field-
Marshal’s full-dress uniform, from a photograph by the London Stereo-
scopic Company ; also photographic groups of the Field-Marshal and his
Staff; and facsimile copies of correspondence, maps, and plans, among
which it a map showing the distribution of the Indian Army as arranged
by Lord Kitchener, and another showing his proposed scheme for strategic
railways in India.

Rtvkt as cmd Notices

RELIGION

The Teaching of the Qur’In ; With an Account of it* Growth and a
Subject Index. By the Rev. H. U. Weitbrecht Stanton, Pu.D n d.d.
(London: Central Board of Missions and S.R.CJC.) 1919. ys.net

{Reviewed by T. W. Arnold* ole.)

For the present generation, the Qur’fio has assumed an importance
that it ha* not perhaps had for several centuries. In estimating its
influence, it must be remembered that for a large'part of the Muhammadan
world, Turkey, Persia, India, the Malay Archipelago, and China, the text
of the Qur'&n, being written in Arabic, is unintelligible, and translations
have not in former times been looked upon with much favour by the
orthodox. During the last century, however, a growing desire for a more
intimate acquaintance with the contents of the sacred scripture of their
faith has made itself manifest, especially among those Muhammadans who
have come under the influence of Western culture and education ; and a
number of translations in the living speech of those parts of the
Muhammadan world, where Arabic is not the language of daily life, have
been published in response to this need. Among the Modernists and the
more advanced sections of educated Muslim thinkers there is a tendency
to reject traditional methods of exegesis and to claim for themselves
liberty and interpretation, with a consequent disregard of commentators
and a direct reference to the original text.

Some Christian controversialists have been slow to recognize this
changed aspect of Muslim theology, but Dr. Weitbrecht Stanton, with his
intimate knowledge of living phases of Muhammadan thought, has given
it full recognition, and presents in this volume an exposition of the theology
of the Qurian, as distinct from later comments. “ Faced by the life and
thought of a new age, Islam is struggling with the difficult task of
adjusting its early medievalism to the demands of a modern world.
Naturally the tendency of progressive Moslems . . . has been to disown
the accretions of their schoolmen, and to recur to the one sacred volume as
the sole genuine expression of the faith and practice incumbent on the true
Muslim. But, in making this use of an Arabian book of the seventh
century, these progressives have claimed, or at least exercised, a great
latitude of interpretation, many results of which are highly repugnant to
the orthodox. The thoughtful missionary or other Christian will not
withhold his sympathy from those who are striving to vindicate a place for
a historical form of monotheism in the new thought-world ; but in order
to form a judgment on their success or failure in so important and difficult
an enterprise it is very necessary that he should be able to estimate
correctly the actual teaching of the Qur'&n as a whole or in any given
part”

Such is the aim of the present work ; about half consists of conspectus
of the teachings of the Qur’&n under the following main headings :
the doctrines of God, revelation, judgment, and saltation, the law of life
and die attitude of Islam to other faiths. The exposition is dear and

Rtvuws and Notuds

5*9

restrained, and will be of much ace to students of Islam and to
oussiooanes. The second half of the book is a subject index
of the contents of the Qur'an, which may prose even mare useful
to students But it could with advantage be considerably enlarged,
for the value of such an index very much depends on its completeness
As the purpose of the book is stated to be the presentation of the body of
moral (as well as the religious) teaching contained in the Qur’an, the heading
Virtues might have been largely increased. Several references might be
added under the headings Martyrs , Friendship (only 5, 56, in which
friendship with Jews and Christians is forbidden, is quoted, but 4, 143 and
6o, 1 also forbid friendship with unbelievers , the verse 5, 85, which speaks
of Christians as nearest in affection to believers— given by Dr Stanton
under the heading Christians — should also be added here), Parables ,
Refugees , etc. There might be also a more liberal use of cross references
e g , Fnewili has a cross-reference to Decrees , but none to Responstbthty
The following headings do not appear at all Bribery, Controversy, Life,
Propaganda, Proselytism, Renegades, Righteousness, Wisdom
To the bibliography may well be added “ Le Koran analyst, par J La
Beau me " (Pans, 1878), which, like Dr R Young’s “Analytical Con
cordance to the Bible,’ quotes the verses under each heading in full, and
thus the student is saved the time and labour of looking each passage up
separately.

Redemption, Hindu and CHRibTiAN By Dr Cave ( Oxford
Untverstiy Press )

This work is one of a series of books which are intended to place
within the perspective of the average theological reader a concise study of
Indian religions, and to show in what respects they resemble or differ
from Christianity Whether the result of the labours of the authors of
the several volumes will be that the cause of Christianity will be advanced
in the East it is too early yet to say But it is unlikely that such treatises
will be very effective For one thing, it is doubtful whether more than a
few Hindu religious teachers will read the present volume, and those who
do will be unlikely to understand it The language used is generally for
too difficult, and had simpler words and phraseology been employed, there
would have been better chance of a wider “ public ”

The general survey of ancient Hindu religious works m Part I is well,
though not too lucidly, expressed But somehow the exposition seems
superficial when compared with the very excellent survey of the teaching,
hfe, and religion of Jesus Chnst, which forms the main thread of Part II
Some account of the life, of Sbn Krishna would have been welcome in
Put I , and the coodvdjfifc chapters of Part II. fail to show what the
author set oert to do-^Bpely, the features in which Christianity and
Hinduism resemble other Their differences merely are made

apparent}

The author fearlessly, shows why Christianity has so far failed to
supplant Hinduism to any appreciable extent in India But we think
VOL. XVL 2 M

530

Reviews and Notices

that he might have gone even farther. He might, for instance, have
shown that Christianity as expounded by Protestant missionaries does
not appeal to the imagination of the average Hindu. Indians generally
are far more imaginative than are we of the Western world, and the
religion which contains a measure of superstition or outward show makes
more appeal to them than does any amount of prosaic teaching or
preaching Hence the greater vogue which Roman Catholicism has
among Indians of a Christian turn of mind than has Protestantism in its
various forms The Indian sees m the average missionary’s life too much
of the strife for material comfort He sees men who, with large families,
in their home cares have little time left them for practising the meditative
part of a religious life which they imagine to be a necessity for the truly
spiritual man Missionaries in India should be unmarried

Christianity has not yet developed mto a superstition, and for this,
doubtless, the spread of education in Europe during the last five hundred
years, and the imparting of religious instruction to other than a narrow
section of people forming a pne9tly “ caste,” are responsible But while
avoiding Scylla we have encountered — and not yet safely passed —
Charybdis , for the many sects into which the Church of Christ has been
split up has done much to impede the spread of Christianity in India
Hinduism is one and indivisible, and Hindus will not accept, without
more convincing proofs of efficacy, a religion which they see has disruptive
rather than unifying tendencies

The analogy between the Tamil proverb and the quotation from
St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans on page 164 is difficult to follow

H W-B

A Gentle Cynic Being the Book of Koheleth By Moms
Jastrow, jun ( Ltppincott ) 1919 Pp. 255

( Reviewed by W W Cannon)

Koheleth is the Hebrew name of Ecclesiastes, one of the most perplexing
books in the Old Testament Its difficulty arises from its want of plan
and consecutive thought, its abrupt and gnomic method of expression, its
obscurities and its inconsistencies In fact, some Jewish Rabbis wished
to exclude it from the Canon because of its contradictory sayings (Tract
Shabbath, 2) Professor Jastrow thinks that the difficulty of interpretation
is owing to the fact that the original work was heavily interpolated, and
seeks in this book to edit the real core of the work stripped of the additions
inserted by (a) the pious commentator who inserted matter to make it look
orthodox, (b) the maxim commentator who introduced proverbs and
saws, (r) a third commentator, or perhaps more than one, who introduced
various glosses This method £1 not a new one. It has long been felt
that the epilogue, c. i2 W4 , m which Koheleth is spoken of m the third
person, is an addition to the original book, and that a few other lines were
doubtful. In 1898 D. C Siegfried put forth a very elaborate interpolation
theory, postulating four interpolator* and two editors. After this G. A. Barton

Remews and Notices

53 «

in 1908 teems very moderate. He only requires two interpolators, the pums
and the wisdom commentators. Of course, these three schemes differ in
results , such schemes always do If we had space we should like to compare
them, but we must confine ourselves to one or two places In c 3 1 "* there
is a well-known list of appointed times “ A time to be born and a time
to die,” etc. Jastrow says that twelve out of the fourteen are interpolated
by his maxim commentator Siegfried and Barton assign the whole to the
original Koheleth In 4 u -5° (divine worship and vows) Jastrow and Barton
give the whole to Koheleth , Siegfried assigns the whole to interpolators
In the long piece n-i2 fi both Jastrow and Barton assign the whole
(including the magnificent parable of old age) to Koheleth, except a gloss or
two , Siegfried will not allow him a word of it These results do not
inspire much confidence in the method We have little doubt that fifty
years hence cntics will still be discussing as to which parts are original
Koheleth and which are not It is probable that some matter, including
the epilogue, was added to give the book a more religious tone, but we are
disposed to lay more weight than Professor Jastrow does(pp 104, 126) on
the quality of inconsistency , which is apt to mark the writings of discursive
thinkers May not Koheleth, like other gentle cynics in other ages, have
jived “a life of doubt diversified by faith"? Anyhow, Professor Jastrow
has retained enough of Koheleth to give us a very pleasant book The
general sketch (pp 27 62) of the present position of Old Testament
criticism, while it contains some rather doubtful propositions, will give the
general reader a very good insight into a complicated and difficult subject
The translation as a whole is very fine, and the exegesis most interesting
An example is 8 10 , where the rendering is really brilliant “ And so I have
seen wicked men buried and [people] coming back from the sanctified
ground and going about singing their praises in the city where they acted thus
— surely this is vanity ” (p 228) Perhaps in one or two places the explana
tion is a little too modern, more in the spirit of Pittsburg than Palestine
It is a little difficult to believe that when Koheleth wrote, “ Cast thy bread
upon the waters," n 1 , he was thinking of business ventures in sending out
goods on ships, and that when he added, “ Divide it up into seven or
eight portions " (a very doubtful rendering), he meant, “ Do not put all of
your investments into one stock, but divide them up into seven or eight
companies ” (pp 167-8) We have said enough to show how interesting
and suggestive this book is. It makes Koheleth a real living man In the
early part of the book he may disguise himself as Solomon, but this mask
soon falls off, and we get the philosophy of life as felt by a keen thinker in a
decadent age. Professor Jastrow is not, like so many commentators, choked
by the weight of his learning. His style is most agreeable and his book is
extremely well adapted to the needs of the general reader, while, at the
same time, the serious student cannot fail to profit by it. But oh * why is
it sent out without an index 1

Rtvums amd Notues

5J a

IKDIA

To the Nations. By Paul Richard (Madras Ganesh and Co )

The Seed or Race By Sir John Woodroffe (Madras Gantsh and Co )

Revtewed by Stanley Rice, lc s. (retd )

Bacon has said of the philosophers that u they make imaginary laws for
imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which
give little hght because they are so high ” Mr Richard’s rhapsody “ To
the Nations " is of this type The world was ve ry evil , nation strove
against nation and no one was u clean of blood ” Civilization, “ vain
glorious and false,” was founded in greed and hypocrisy the greed of
other people's land and the hypocrisy which preaches a crusade to
free oppressed nations to those who are themselves oppressors And then
came the Great War— the war of liberation, which shall free all the
peoples of the earth, Belgium and Arabia, India and Africa, no less than
Serbia and Poland “ The old foundations must be replaced by
the foundations of a better and truer civilization ” The past belonged to
the nations , the future, because of the cleansing of the Great War, shall
belong to humanity For what was the law and what was the ideal of the
peoples ? A law which taught that what was a shame and an abomination to
the individual was the glory and the boast of the nation an ideal which
made a monopoly of liberty, a guarantee of self interest of justice, a tool
to serve greed of science Humanity was a “ field for profits ” civilization
41 a mask of fraud ” All this will be changed. The greatest country will
be that which best serves humanity, for that is the life of the nation
And so the Vision arises of a glorified humanity, the Supreme Deity m the
Pantheon before whom the nations, the lesser deities, must bow, to whom
Man will owe his first allegiance, “ the Divine Being who sleeps in the
bosom of men and of nations ”

It is a glorious ideal, but it is not a new one, and M. Richard does not
give us much in the shape of constructive criticism Rabindranath
Tagore, who appropriately enough has written the preface to the essay,
has preached the gospel of humanity in passionate prose. Swinburne has
worshipped the same god m ecstatic verse. Alexander I tried in his
limited way to put the gospel into practice, and the politicians of to day
are attempting to evolve a scheme to the same end

It is all very beautiful, passionate prose poetry, but it is unsatisfying
The ideal is so far off that, like the stars, it gives little hght because it
is so high

Sir John Woodroffe’s essay is in quite a different category The
opening pages are a little alarming an excursion into the mysteries of
Hindu philosophy makes one tremble, until it becomes plain that what the
author is pleading for is merely recognition of the forces of racial
heredity. The Englishman is the product of the English race, the Indian
of the Indian Both are, or should be, what they are by a process of
evolution, and therefore it is wrong to try and turn the Indian into a
thoroughgoing Westerner, just as it is wrong for the orthodox Hindu to
cling to outworn superstitions and to effete practices But what the

Rtvwms and Notices

5JJ

English have done and are still doing is to educate die Indian boy as 1 1
he had no past, no country, no history to speak of He admits that there u
much that is good and even essential in the English education He grants
that we have an unsurpassed Literature, and that commercial, industrial, and
scientific education must be on English lines, but he asks very pertinently
why we insist on school hours which are unsuitable to Indian boys, why
we consider that buildings of brick, tables, benches, blackboards are in-
dispensable when one can sit under a tree and write on the sand And the
answer is “ because it is the European way ” “ The young Indian has

been subjected to such a strong and continuous suggestion of his inferiority
that it is a wonder that any spirit of self assertion has at all survived in
such circumstances ‘ he will, according to every probability, come to
depreciate his own people and culture The Seed of Race, the Sangs
kira, cannot develop in such soil If India is to be true to herself and to
her own inherited nature, and if she is nevertheless to take her place in the
modem world, she should be taught both her own culture and also
English and other Western languages modem science and the rest, and
not the latter alone

There is much in this little essay of sixty four pages with which the
student of India cannot but heartily agree We are perhaps too much
taken up with the government, and do not always recognize the supreme
importance of the Educational Department Yet there are many who
would gladly see its methods changed and a little moie of the racial
native element introduced It is a pity that here and there there are lapses in
style and even in grammar It is irritating to read that the English are
‘ one of the foremost, if not the foremost, power in the world, when so
very little would have made the sentence unobjectionable

Great Ganga the Guru By Kavita Kaumudi {Kegatx Paul ) 6s net
Kavita Kaumudi is the “private title conferred upon the author,
Elizabeth Arnold, by a saintly pundit of Benares fhakur Tagore, the
elder brother of Sir Rabindranath Tagore, the poet, declares that these
poems “are reminiscent of the inspired utterances of our rtshes of old
The “conceptions of our India of old are assuredly very like the
modem schools known as New Thought or Higher Thought, and all such
bodies of thinkers will find much to interest them in this beautifully
printed volume, the subtitle of which gives the key to tts object that of
showing “ how a seeker sought the Real

“ Is thy soul sick ? Pear nothing thou canst not

pray i But stt at least thou canst Sit in the Presence of Him

who is Fire sit and fear not seek not to speak, rtor to
think 1 But only be and — as thou shalt realize thy One ness
with Him the Glorious — then shall the tears of am all great peace and
love suffuse thy happy cheeks

“Pot in that Oneness thou shalt realize that not only has He
healed thee, but He has made thee more Hts than thou wert ”

What it this but the modern methods of “ sitting m the silence for
kelp and healing ?

F R b

534 Reviews and Notices

The Coming Great Change uc Education By Captain Petaval,
R.E (ret ) (Board of Industries and Commerce Bulletin No i
Bangalore City.)

{Reviewed by The Lady Katharine Stuart)

Among the many pressing problems which await our attention at the
present time, there is one calling for special attention because it is the
basis of all national reformation, and that is the special system of educa
tion by means of which we hope to see and believe that we shall see
physically sound, mentally equipped, spiritually instructed, and hence
divinely guided, young people becoming worthy citizens of numberless
beautiful and holy cities In everything, but more especially in dealing
with the young, let us have as our ideal, “ The utmost for the Highest ’
Let us be fully persuaded that the goal in view is no less a thing than the
creation, by faith in God, of a regenerated and sanctified humanity, inben
tors of all things by the “open sesame of an open mind and all embracing
heart, and a hunger and thirst after righteousness , that such individuals
constitute nations who shall be m reality a holy people, living in harmony
together in their lovely abode, the earth, so enamoured of the law of Him
who made it, that <r nothing shall offend them ’ Is this thing impossible
to us ?

“ Nothing shall be impossible to you — such is the keynote of Captain
Petaval s book, “ Tbe Coming Triumph of Christian Civilization ” Let us
turn, then, from the contemplation of this glowing Mount Everest of an
ideal back to the Eiffel Towers, the rolling switchbacks, the harassing re
stnctions of modem existence, with a new hope, a new zest The ideal
exists, transcending for ever the lesser altitudes of wealth, reputation — yes,
even of earthly honour or glory, but “ are your minds set upon righteousness ?
Let us pause and ensure it Let us chensh the ideal till it becomes an
oasis in the mind, a sanctuary in the heart, an eternal incentive to the soul
ascending It is now many years since the author of " The Great Change
in Education ” first captured the wise with a word, and satisfactorily showed
how the adoption of the simplest code of Christian conduct — the ideal of
loving service from the very dawn of life — would surely lead us to bring up
children, not m dreary barracks under a harassing, cramping regime of
countless restrictions and regulations, but m self supporting communities
m which labour and play would be a combination called occupation , in
which the work would be adapted to the child, not the child sacrificed to
the work , in which the lowliest industry with the hands should by no means
preclude, as in apostolic precedent, a simultaneous initiation into the
deepest mysteries of the Christian faith, work of which the yoke would be
easy and the burden light , in which the Fellow worker would be our Divine
Guide , in which the pedagogue would have become a lesser foreman of the
works, realizing himself as but “a child of larger growth ” The transition
from a Judaic, mammon governed serai barbarism to a civilization by love
may thus be made almost insensibly By the creation of numberless agn
cultural industrial colonies — upon somewhat similar lines to the Bourn ville,
for example — the principle of love as the initiator, promoter, and perfecter

Reviews and Notices

535

of all enterprise may become a reality , toon even the circumlocution by
means of cash may come to be superfluous, and u production for use * or
“ from everyone according to ability to everyone according to need ” be
the universally accepted solution of economic distress , but this can best
be brought about by the intermediary of an international language like
Esperanto, and thereby the love of the Father for every man may find at
length a perfect expression and His salvation be seen by the ends of the
earth.

NEAR EAST

Forty Four Months in Germany and Turkey. By Har Dayal, m a
{P. S King and Son )

{Reviewed by Captain P S Cannon, m a )

The author of this book is, as is explained in the preface, a late active
member of the Indian faction most hostile to Great Britain, who has been
led by his experience of the Germans and Turks, while visiting Germany
and Turkey during the war, to recant his old opinions These experiences
he relates m four sections of the highest interest to all students, not only
of the " Nationalist” anti British movements in the Near East, but also
of German and Turkish psychology In the second and fourth sections
Mr. Dayal gives us, in no uncertain fashion, his opinion of the Germans
and Turks as they appeared to the Orientals of all races who arrived in
those countries hoping to find in both German and Turk faithful and
useful allies m the struggle against Britain, and who invariably seem to
have departed shorn of all their illusions On the subject of the Turks
Mr Dayal is quite unequivocal, and his words might well be worth studying
by those earnest Indian Mussalmans who are so anxious that Turkey should
not be ousted from Constantinople “The Turks he remarks on p 31,
‘are a predatory tnbe without culture and political capacity , ’ and again
“ History has clearly demonstrated that the Turk has no intellectual
potentialities He is really unfit for leadership of any kind, as a leader is
distinguished by his intellectual pre eminence over his colleagues ’ (p 32)
He thoroughly castigates the Indian Mussalmans in some pithy sentences
“As the Turks are a barbarous tnbe, the Muslims of India make a great
mistake m identifying their cause with the fortunes of the Ottomans
If the Muslims of India wish to appear in company with their Hindu
brethren on the public platforms of the civilized world, they must first
wash their hands clean of Ottomanism in all its shapes and disguises’
(PP 34 *nd 35). He goes on to say (p 38) that “ it is the fashion of some
Muslims to be enthusiastic about everything out of India, and to remain
indifferent to the claims and needs of their co religionists at home Such
an attitude is fostered by the hollow cant of Pan Islamism I have been
at the heart and centre of Islam, m the innermost court of the shrine of
Pan-Islam > and I declare that it is all a fraud and a hoax, designed to
impose upon credulous Muslims in distant lands ” He concludes with the
witty and scathing remark (p. 49), “ There is nothing but dirt and dead
flogs and scheming rascals in Stamboul ”

Reviews end Notices

53 *

Mr. Dayal n equally outspoken when he discusses Genutnjr. Moving
About as he did among the 41 conceited Voting Turks, fussy Egyptians,
scute but pessimistic Persians, nondescript Arabs, handsome Georgians,
and others who fancied that the triumph of Germany would redress their
wroogi M (p 55), be soon lost all his illusions on the subject of his hosts.
" These Orientals, thus gathered together in Berlin, soon found out that
they lived in a society of snobs, bullies, boors, churls, and cads, n and were
compelled to admit that “the English are at least gentlemen” (p* 5 8 )-
1 hey complained that they were treated like dogs, as indeed they seem to
have been from Mr Dayal’s account of his own personal experiences, and
they were miserable and puzzled till they realized that “ morally, socially,
and politically,” the Germans were “ in a lower state of development, 1 ” and
that Germany was a “ strange and startling mixture of rampant medieval-
ism and modern civilization ” Mr Dayal concludes that, as the world
m general has realized, the spirit that animated Germany was one of
“ excessive megalomania ” and due to “ the delirium of the parvenu ”

In his last section, Mr Dayal describes the “ German adventure,” how
they came as allies and champions of the Oriental nations, until Turkey,
Persia, and many others, realized that their only object was to place them-
selves in the position of rulers The result was that the Germans (p. 80)
failed “ not only from the military standpoint, but also in a moral sense.
They are now hated and despised wherever they have shown themselves
during the war, from Stamboul to Kabul, and from Medina to Teheran
. Germany is to day morally bankrupt in Asia ”

Space precludes us from any more extracts from this truly admirable
little book. But those we have given will have served their purpose if they
lead to the reading of the book ltBelf by every reader of the Asiatic Review
who wishes to realize the utter bankruptcy of the much-boasted German
diplomacy in the East and the entire failure of the German to understand
Oriental psychology, and is willing to see from a new angle the question of
Constantinople and the Indian Muslims.

From an Eastern Embassy Memoires of London, Berlin, and the East.

With illustration {Herbert Jenkins ) 16s net

In her opening chapter the author, whose picture in Turkish dress adorns
the frontispiece of her book (and by which she will be easily recognized by
her friends), grves us a vivid description of her life at the Turkish Embassy
at Bryamton Square, when Rustem Pasha, by birth an Italian (Count
Marini), was Ambassador to the Court of St. James, and her husband his
councillor and lifelong friend Her descriptions of what was going on in
the interior of that Embassy, the official dinners prepared by cooks
summoned from Pans, the small family dinners, composed of the Ambas-
sador, herself, and her husband, with her little son Lucien, who behaved
so well that the Pasha declared “ he could have dined with the Qtteeni”
are charmingly related Not less interesting are the records she gives ns
of the London social life m those days. Purposely and wisely she avoids
politics It was the time when Sultan Abdul Hamid and his predecessor

Reviews and Notices

537

made it very difficult for his representatives in England and other European
courts to remain loyal As Rustem Pasha was an unmarried old gentle-
man, the author represented the female element of the Turkish Embassy,
and had therefore the entree at Court and to aQ the leading houses in
England. She gives us interesting touches of well known ladies in high
positions, not devoid of wit and sarcasm, of brilliant functions at Devon
shir* House, Lansdowne House, Ham House, etc , etc At a party of the
well known Baroness de Reuter, in Kensington Palace Gardens, where
literature and the arts were fully represented, she describes her meeting
with Maicagm and Adelina Patti The latter her husband had met as a
young man when Secretary at the Embassy of St Petersburg, where she
had been still the feted Marquise de Caux The Czar, who admired her
very much, sent her most magnificent furs and jewels, etc , and on more
than one occasion speke of the pleasure it would give him to welcome her
at the balls in the Winter Palace, H quand elle aura quitfe la sefene , ”
“ Tempi pacsati ’ indeed '

The author's description of the Private Views of the Royal Academy of
the old days, where she met Mr and Mrs Gladstone, Whistler, Mr and
Mrs Kendal, in the days when Lord Leighton was President, will be
interesting to those who also remember when, among many famous
visitors, were the great art patron, the Due d Aumale, Lord Northbrook,
Lord Lansdowne, and others Through all these reminiscences there goes
an element of occultism which gives a cunous air of mystery to the book.
Her own long illness, the death of Rustem Pasha, their subsequent transfer
to Berlin, were events long foretold to her before they actually happened
And what is more, she herself predicted to her fnends on many occasions
what the future would hold in store for them

The chapter devoted to occult experiences plays even a more prominent
pirt m her life in Berlin She attends spiritualistic stances, which were
held m well known houses There was a clairvoyant at Frau von Moltke s
private apartments, where the Kaiser was present He sat on this occasion
m a dimly lit room, when first of all a hymn was chanted Hjs stern,
frowning face looked most protestingly incredulous when a young girl
about fifteen, an offshoot of the Manteuffel family, fell into a trance and
began to speak She did not lean back or fall asleep, but sat bolt upright,
her large eyes opening to their widest extent Her voice changed in timbre
and became like that of a man In strident tones she spoke of certain of
her ancestors who were to her present in spirit, and who foretold great
misfortunes and violent death hanging on the reigning house It seemed
to upset the Kaiser very much, yet he remained for the whole time the
girl was in a trance, which lasted forty minutes Subsequently a command
was issued m the daily papers that he forbade any public mention of
psychic matter* in the press.

Later at Bucharest, she stayed with a lady in waiting of Queen Elizabeth,
known as Carmen Sylvia. In her drives round the gay city she dwells
on a beautiful Greek church surrounded by a garden with blooming
oleander-trees, which had keen recently built by a daughter of Musurus
Pasha, who had married Prince Branco van The Princess was known at

53 # Reviews and Notices

Constantinople as a highly gifted musician, who so delighted the Sultan
Abdul Hamid (himself a gifted musician) with her playing that be was
ready to give her anything she asked Eventually this took the form of
a gorgeous parure of jewels Mustapha Bey, who was at the Turkish
Legation at Bucharest, was a great admirer of the beloved old Queen,
who proved to be a second Florence Nightingale during the Russo-
Turkish War of 1877 Her motto was “I am not here to judge but to
help n The famous Schools for the Blind in Rumania were erected at
her instigation 14 Ce n’est pas votre couronne que j’aime, 6 Madame, mais
c’est ton feme, 6 Elizabeth ” was significantly written m one of her
books by an admirer of hers. After Bucharest she paid a flying visit
to Constantinople, from whence she and her son embarked to Beyrut, at
which port they took tickets for Chemlan in the Lebanon There a
great disillusionment came over her, and she feels that it would be
banishment to live in those far off climes

Again she is haunted by prophecies and predictions The last evening
of her stay in the Lebanon, which she spends with her friends, she is asked
by her hostess to foretell her fortune by cards She could not refuse,
although she felt that she should not do it When she turns up the cards
the verdict was to her hostess “ You will very shortly have news of a
death which will cause you great grief,” and again, “ It is not a relation,
but somebody very near and dear to your husband '* Just before she lett
the next morning, the author received a telegram of her husband’s sudden
death It was he who was the great friend of whom her host and hostess
of the previous evening were to be bereaved Subsequently her only son’s
premature death was also not without foreboding Involuntarily we ask
ourselves Why should we see in the future our destiny before it comes
about, if we have no power to avert it ? Is it not a curtain which is best
not lifted ?

The author’s intention to give the reader the impressions she gathered
throughout her interesting life at the various Turkish Embassies which have
long since receded into history has been successfully carried out m this
fascinating book, which will no doubt attract many readers

L M R

Russia in Rule and Misrule A short history by Brigadier-General
C. R. Ballard, c b , cmg, with a foreword by General Sir William
Robertson, bt, gcb, K^vo, dso (John Murray )

From the foreword we learn that Brigadier-General Ballard was
personally in touch with Russian affairs during 1919 He was thus able
to come into contact with some of the chief actors in the Russian drama,
and furnishes some useful explanations of the causes of the Revolution
A Russian statesman of the former regime, whose observations are
given in full, ascribed the Revolution to a suppressed and disappointed
inUlhgeusta, but these were joined by a number of impracticable dreamers
and youthful and rash university students. “If only one party had
grasped the power firmly from the very first the Revolution might have

Reviews and Notices 539

been a success.” An advanced socialist said that the Revolution of the
into tfxgenxia had not taken place.

The earlier chapters form a summary of Russian history from Variag
days. The alphabet of Cyril and Methodius was intended for South Slavs
rather than Russians, though it is the general basis of Russian, Serbian,
and Bulgarian. Temoochun is better known as Genghis Khan. One of
the khans said to a missionary : u We Tartars believe there is a God
in whom we live and die. ... He gave you writings which you don't
observe ; He gave us soothsayers whom we obey, and we live in peace.”
The outline will suffice for readers unacquainted with Russian history,
being based on Ivanov and Kluchevsky, and the inquirer will probably
turn to these and other historians. The later chapters relate the revolu.
tionary movement from Radistchev and Novikov (Catherine II ) to the
murder of Stolypin by the Jew provocateur Bagrov, and the abdication of
the Czar, the Kerensky and Kornilov incident, and the Bolshevist misrule.

There is evidence that the work has been hastily written, and names
are not always to be recognized — t g., Mephod (Methodius), Shoosky
(Shuisky), and Lagarp (Laharpe) The minister Plehve’s name is
incorrectly given. These, however, do not detract from the value of the
history. F. P M.

Bohemia : An Historical Sketch By the Count Lutzow, d Ltn.,
ph.d., with an introduction by President Professor T G. Masaryk.
{. Everyman ; Dent.)

The late Count Lutzow, a popular figure in English society, author,
diplomatist, soldier, and sportsman, did more than most men to make
Bohemia known in England. He used to say that the Czechs had few
friends here as they were so little known, but largely through his efforts
their number has greatly increased. Besides this sketch, the Count wrote
on Bohemian literature, an illustrated work on “ hundred towered golden
Prague,” lectures on the historians of the country, the life of Jan Hus and
the subsequent Hussite wars, and translated the “ Labyrinth of the World ”
of J. A. Komensky (Comemus), a kind of “Pilgrim’s Progress," but of a
more mournful character.

This history furnishes an account of age long struggles and tenacity on
the part of one of the most advanced members of the great Slav race
against determined Teuton hereditary efforts at supremacy. In the
Hussite wars Zizka and Prokop carried the conflict far beyond Bohemia,
and earlier than that Premysl Ottakar ruled from the Baltic to the
Adriatic, while more than once Poland and Bohemia were under one
crown. It seemed as if all was lost in the Thirty Years’ War, but revival
began in the reign of Joseph IL, and for more than a century it has
progressed. During the late world conflict the sympathies of the Czechs
were with the Allies, whom they aided in every possible way, and
President T, G. Masar yk became a chief actor in the drama Count
Lutzow sustained the efforts of his countrymen in Switzerland, where he
died. The last words of this volume refer to dark, menacing clouds over
banging Bohemia, and President Masaryk says that these were swept away

540 Reviews a#t* Notues

in the tempest, while the tan of freedom now shines upon Czech* and
Slovaks united. They are fortunate in union under a wise statesman,
respected in the Old and New Worlds. The writer has been in the
country in stormy times, and rejoices at the happy ending of a reactionary
rule.

Messrs. Dent have performed aft important service in issuing Count
Lutzow’s story in the Everyman series, which brings it within the reach of
all. We would like to dwell at length on the links between England and
Bohemia, but must refrain, hoping that many readers of the Asiatic
Review who have not done so will take an early opportunity of procuring
this fascinating narrative. F. P. M.

The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918. A study based on
documentary evidence. By Henning Soderhjelm. (Translated.)
{Harrison and Sons,)

For the first five months of 1918 Finland was in the throes of an
insurrection, A Red army had taken possession of the southern part of
the country, and a White army, with Swedish volunteer assistance and the
help of a German relief expedition! captured Helsingfors and indicted a
series of defeats upon the Reds. The author was engaged in official
work of liquidating the affairs of the insurrection, and with the help of
Senator F. Frey and others was enabled to compile his record.

During a period of twenty years Finland had undergone a transforma-
tion. The introduction of manufactures, as in Russia, had unsettled a
pastoral and agricultural population, town immigration had created a
housing problem, and labour difficulties arose. Cold and adverse
climatic conditions have made the Finn a stubborn, rather sullen,
primitive individualist : consequently something like a religious appeal is
necessary in order to arouse him. The national language movement
against the predominance of Swedish and the effort to improve education
took this character, and the zeal for the total abstinence cause and
cooperation was that of crusaders. Apart from social or economic con-
siderations, the Finns struggled against Russification by means of passive
resistance. The older Russian revolutionaries were welcomed and
aided, but the aims of Finnish and Russian revolutionaries were divergent.
Those of the latter we know, but the former sought what they considered
to be their just natural rights. The Finnish Labour Party had not leaders
of character and ability, and soon began to look at politics with Russian
eyes. Against their will the Finns were drawn into the Russian struggle,
since many Russians wished to abolish their state, and a nuqaber of Finns
caught up the cry against the upper classes, bourgeois, and capitalists.
The Revolution of 1917 was hailed with joy, as the Finns saw the prospect
of release of some of their own exiles. The worst elements of the Russian
garrison, however, started an orgy of terror and assassination, and the
Finnish Labour Party did not, and perhaps could not, interfere.

Plainer perhaps than by anything else, the Russian colouring of the
Red is shown by the fact that they were entire stranger* to such concep-
tions as law and order. Their whole rule bore the impress of the East,

Rwmtfs awd Notuts

54 *

with contempt ol the rights of otheri, of discipline and self-control , . .
The revolution of the Red was as foreign as possible to our character, as it
was foreign to any deliberate, carefully planned, coolly earned out
revolution

In conclusion, the author claims that the mission of Finland has been
to stand as an eastern outpost of Europe, receiving blows intended against
Scandinavia. Having beaten down an attack of “the East,” Finland
aspires to become “a Western culture state and law state.” Certainly the
country deserves sympathy and goodwill after the troubles narrated by Mr
Soderbjehn, but their antagonists and their pokey are not as entirely
“ Eastern ” as he describes. F P M

Europe in the Melting-Pot By R W Seton Watson, d litt , Lecturer
m East European History, King’s College, Editor of The New
Europe {Macmillan )

The author is widely known as a foremost living authority on the racial
and political problems of Central Europe, which he had made his own for
many years before the war In the course of time he found that earlier
views had to be modified, since “few countries have ever been more fatal
to preconceived notions than the now vanished Hapsburg monarchy ”
Dr Seton Watson had observed and exposed the policy by which the
Magyars maintained their ascendancy in Croatia and Slovakia, and he
foresaw that the South Slav question would develop into a wide conflict
unless solved by wise statesmanship at Vienna Instead, however, Vienna
was practically forced by Berlin into war upon Serbia The mam theses
urged by Dr Seton Watson by voice and pen were (i) necessary dis
memberment of Austria Hungary and Turkey to complete Allied victory ,
(a) more than local importance of the Jugoslav solution, (3) the vital
importance of the Macedonian front In view of general ignorance on
these various burning questions and lack of information in responsible
quarters, he and a small group of fnend9 decided to found The New
Europe Foreign policy should, he contends, become the vital interest of
every English man and woman, and he hopes that the Worker s Educa-
tional Association will extend such studies among its members.

The chapters are grouped under problems of policy, politics, and war,
Russia and the New Europe, and the work starts with the Austro Serbia
dispute It consists largely of articles written at different periods and
brought to date, but some solutions have been arranged since it was
published. The Turkish question is being settled as we write, but while
the “ bag and baggage ” pokey is not to be enforced, American bishops
telegraph to the Archbishop of Canterbury that they support the
movement to turn the Turks out of Constantinople There is no longer a
question of placing the city under Russia, where there is no Catherine II
to be considered Who in Russia now can be regarded as champion of
the Slavs and Orthodoxy, and what has become of the dreams of Kollar
and Hemiakov, inter altos J Dr. Seton Watson’s essay on Panslavism will
JU interest, but the reconciliation of Poland and Russia is more
rcm °te than ever. The Adriatic settlement is still open The account of

542

Rtvuies and Notices

political gerrymandering in Transylvania by die Magyar* is a grim
indictment of the oligarchy, who employed similar methods agamst
the Slovak*. Both these long-oppressed peoples are able to work in accord
with their brethren of Roumania and Bohemia. In the B&nat there are
claims of Magyars, Roumanians, Serbs, and Germans (Suabians), The
chapter on the evolution of Bulgaria refers to the Pan-Turanian theory Of
an alliance of Turk, Bulgar, and Magyar against Westernism and Panslavism.
For centuries subjugated by the Turks, like Serbia and Greece, the Bulgars,
Slavonired Mongols, were lost sight of. Few rulers, according to this
account, have been more shamelessly astute than King Ferdinand, now in
exile. The account of the Ukraine problem reads like a romance.
Memories of the old Cossack chieftains, men of the type of Gogol’s
Taras* Bulba, who held their own against Moscow and Warsaw, account
for the tenacity of the Ukrainians (people of the border) in their struggle
for independence of Russia and Poland, with their Uniate Church.

Dr. Seton-Watson acknowledges the help of eminent colleagues in four
years of work : Mr. H. Wickham Steed (editor of The Times) ; Mr. A. F.
Whyte, M.P. ; Dr. R. M. Burrows (Principal of King’s College), whose
prolonged illness calls for our sympathy and best hopes for speedy
restoration ; and President T. G. Masaryk. His opinion of those largely
responsible for direction of foreign politics in the past may be gathered
from these words :

The Great War is in itself a hideous revelation of the futility and
artificiality of the purely diplomatic peaces and compromises of the last
century. ... At the future Congress history and philosophy must be the
handipaids of diplomacy.

F. P. M.

CURRENT PERIODICALS

Professor E. H. Parker has written a very interesting article on the
Japanese-Chinese question for The New China Review, in which he enters
very thoroughly into this difficult question, which proved so embarrassing
to the statesmen of Versailles. After a sketch of the historical lide of the
question he proceeds : " It would be a sad spectacle to see unfortunate
China, with her nigh 3,000 years of history recorded almost day by day,
her magnificent literature, her capacity for education, religion, industry,
and morality — to see all this go under without a friendly effort to save her,
to give her yet a chance. In a sense, it may be said that in 1904 Japan
saved China from Russia, and China was duly grateful for it ; she was even
disposed to accept the fraternal guidance of Japan.” About the present
impasse, he writes that it "is perhaps owing as much to the excessive
eagerness of party spirit in Japan as to excessive carelessness and timidity
on the pari of inexperienced Chinese negotiators. The suggestion made
by The Times a few months ago that Japan, by a voluntary b*av geste ,
might arrange a reasonable settlement direct with China without there
being left the Slightest feeling of having had to yield to Western pressure,
seems very much to the point.” The concluding paragraph of his article

Reviews and Notices

543

is as follows 44 There is little danger except under extreme provocation of
Bolshevist confusion taking root in the practical Chinese mind, though the
brutal riffraff levied by Lenin from among the miners and freebooters of
Manchuna show what a peril to Europe larger hordes of disgruntled
Chinese might become. The political aims of the steadier element both
in North and South China seem to drift more and more towards a federa
tion of states after the American model , for local sentiment in China is
strong, and the old idea of having non-provincial civilian officials seems to
have gone by the board The 41 my country nght or wrong feeling so
powerful in the United States takes a reverse direction m China, where
the hereditary instinct is rather 44 myself nght or wrong”, “my family
nght or wrong * , 44 my claD, my district, my province, right or wrong *
Thus the feeling of national loyalty inherent in the orderly Chinese mind
enfeebles itself politically the higher it goes *

Lovers of Indian art will welcome the appearance of a new publica-
tion, edited by Mr Ordhendra C Gangoly in Calcutta, entitled Rupam
An Illustrated Quarterly Journal of Oriental Art , Chiefly Indian Such
a journal makes its appearance at an opportune moment, the death
of the Journal of Indian Art Leaves it without a rival in the- field, and
other magazines of art that have survived the catastrophe of the war
devote but scanty space to the art of India The first number, issued in
January, 1910, contains (out articles I A stone panel, admirably tepro
duced in heliogravure, with a slim, graceful figure on it, representing,
apparently, a prince standing at the door of a shnne — taken from one of
the moonlight temples at the Seven Pagodas, near Madras, which are
believed to have been carved in the reign of one of the Pallara Princes, in
the seventh century ad II A study of Garuda, the earner of Vishnu,
with a detailed comparison of representations of this king of the birds, m
Bengal and Java. Ill “The continuity of pictorial tradition m the art
of India ” opens up an investigation of this obscure chapter in Indian art,
hitherto so little studied, with a special study of miniatures from the
covers of a Buddhist palm leaf manuscript, executed either in Nepal or
Behar about 1090 The last article gives a detailed study of one of the
artistic motifs, the Klrtimukha (“Glory face 1 ), which is found especially on
Saivaite temples, but occurs persistently throughout the whole history of
Indian art and can be illustrated from buildings in Burma, Java, and
Nepal The plates are of an excellent quality, and will come as a welcome
surprise to those who are not acquainted with the progress in book illus-
tration made in India during recent years , the letterpress is of as high an
order of excellence as the plates, and the journal has started off with a
good exemplification of the aim 01 the editor to admit only articles con
taming original matter The subscription rate is eighteen rupees, but
until an agent, to whom subscriptions may be paid, is appointed outside
India, there can be but little hope of the extension of the sale in England
and America, to say nothing of other countries, such as France, Germany,
and Holland, in which there is a growing interest in Indian art.

T. W A

544

NEAR EASTERN NOTES

By F. R. Scatcherd

Brief as they were, the Greek Notes last April aroused considerable
interest and some criticism. To those who consider that the lessons to be
derived from the Great War have never been more lucidly summarized
than by the small band of Greek reconstructionists referred to I have
little to say, but will deal with a letter to which an answer hat long
been due, thus covering points raised by other critics also adverse.

The writer, a well-known Greek, begins by saying that Part I. is “ par-
ticularly effective,”* and then ridicules the text upon which it was based by
adding —

" The powers of the nebulous world seem for once to have inspired
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with a worthy message.”

Is it necessary to say that a knowledge of history and a keen sense of
justice prompted the creator of “ Sherlock Holmes ” to write me the letter
from which I quoted words I repeat here, which came as an inspiration to
my own soul when the whole horizon was dark and menacing? He
wrote :

“I agree with you. Greece should have Constantinople. Her
hall-mark is over all the stolen property.”

It may be objected that this was merely a harmless jest. That might
be were it an isolated case, but the correspondence too often reveals a
shallow cynicism and lack of reverence for ideal truths and aims that
augurs ill for the future of that Greater Greece, to ensure which so much is
at this very moment being risked and sacrificed, for as I write the news-
vendors are crying : “ Greece goes to war I”

II. Foundation Principles for the Future

“As for Part II.,” continues my correspondent, “I appreciate
your point of view, which is no doubt correct when based on
the facts you have been given ; but I cannot refrain from pointing
out that the truth has been utterly and completely distorted, • •

and that incomparable harm might be done to the Greek cause,
of which you have shown yourself so zealous and devoted a defender,
by throwing into prominence questions which I can assure you are
entirely fictitious and non-existent I”

Unfortunately, I am rarely “ given ” facts. Outside of ordinary propa
ganda, one meets few Greeks who will trouble themselves to further one s
desire to befriend the Greek cause. I admired them for this until forced
to the conclusion that, though they love Greece devotedly , the Greeks do not

* See note at end.

Near Eastern Notes

545

lot v Greeks One lores races as one loves individuals, one knows not

why, but that love on the part of a foreigner must be very deep rooted to
withstand the perpetual assault of Greek against Greek This unlovely
trait, however, may be merely the perversion of the superstition that
caused a Greek mother in one of the islands to shrink in terror when
I praised her infant, and I had to take back the praise and perform some
simple nte of exorcism before she could be comforted
What are the questions toy correspondent calls “fictitious and non
existent ?” The only questions raised in Part II are well termed “ founda
non pr mciples for the future ”

(a) That Parliament should only consist of representatives of
productive national exertion

(b) The entire community is involved in any desired change

(<r) Economic solidarity among nations is the only guarantee of
permanent peace

As to the first, surely the day is coming when an enlightened electorate
will insist on the democratic control of its interests , no sane individual
questions the second , and every hour that passes since the signing of
peace reveals the deep truth of the third
What the writer has m his mind is that the social question barely exists if
at all in Greece .

On my first visit to the Near East, 1909 1910, I enquired of the Bntish
Minister as to the position of the social problem in Greece He replied
that it did not exist in any real sense, so far as he was aware Others
said the same “Why, then,” I asked, “did 10,000 workers come to greet
us at Volo ?” and “ Why, wherever we went, were even women so keen to
hear addresses, which only men are supposed to attend, that I myself have
been a party to their concealment that they too might listen unseen?”
To such questions I could get no satisfactory answers, and am amused,
when not pained, to be told that after the lapse of so many stirring years
the social question still does not exist in Greece The statement has
become a shibboleth, like the “gentlemanly Turk” and “crafty Greek”
traditions, and will be harder to destroy, since it has become an ostrich like
attitude of the Greeks themselves, and is tantamount to saying that the
Greeks, whom I soon characterized as “the brains of the Near East,” are
m this respect behind all their neighbours in the Balkans *

Later on, the writer says that the Socialist Party is unknown in Greece
“ except to those who imagine they constitute it,” and that he has only
fust ” heard of its organ Ercvna, but has never seen a copy
I believe it is possible for the writer to have spent years in Oxford, and
yet not to know of the review in his own language founded there in 1901
Such defect of knowledge is characteristic of the diplomatic classes almost
everywhere, even in England When I warned Mr Venizelos of this

*“Je me touviem d’avoir entendu que la question sociale n’existe pas
5 Grice CmUmporame, by I M Cossano, Eaat and

West, Ltd. is. post free

VOL XVI

2 N

546

Near Eastern Nates

before his first mit to London, he said he feared I was unjust to tny own
people. Later, I heard that at one of his first dinners here he was asked
by his charming neighbour
“ Are the Greeks Christians?”

“ Have you not heard of the Greek Orthodox Church ?" was the Socratic
reply, but his fair questioner insisted
u Yes, yes, of course 1 You have not answered my question I want to
know whether you are Moslems ”

Most Greeks in Constantinople, however, know of the founder of Balkan
Socialism When on ray first visit to that city, I lost myself in the native
quarter Knowing no Turkish and barely a word of Greek, I was at a loss,
until I noticed Greek names over many of the shops A bright idea struck
me Entering one of these shops, and placing my right hand on my breast
to indicate myself, I said “ Platon Drakoules ”

The effect was magical I was instantly surrounded by friends and
conducted to Pera Palace Hotel with the greatest courtesy This plan
never felled me, and I no longer hesitated to go about alone, as it sue
ceeded with Turkish friends also

The writer further says “ The locality in Athens in which the offices
of the Greek Labour League are situated is sufficiently indicative of its
nature,” and having a secretary in “ the wilds of America ” is found to be
" ridiculous."

Just what the writer means I do not know But the same might be said
of the People’s Palace in Whitechapel, which would hardly serve its purpose
were it removed to Mayfair Recognizing as he does a genuine “ Labour
Movement in the Piraeus,” one would have thought he would find 40, Rue
Piraeus as a central spot of Athens most appropriate headquarters, with the
Acropolis dominating the horizon, and I fear he may find the existence
of an Etrvna colony near Milwaukee more ndiculoui even than a secretary
“ in the wilds of America ” However, he may retort he has only “ jttsl
heard of Milwaukee, notwithstanding that Milwaukee is a city with half a
million inhabitants

III The Greek Labour Question
11 To turn to the Greek Labour Question,” continues the writer,

“ I admit that there has been some unrest in Athens, and this must
be attributed to

e Wild spirits infected by European unrest
Royalist and anti-Venezelist schemes,

A genuine Labour Movement among the labourers {compara
tively few) of the Piraeus.

But in a country like Gr eece where, apart from Athens, Salonika
and, to a much lesser degree, Patras and Veto, the whole country is
entirely agricultural, composed chiefly of small farmers, how can there
be a Labour Question, which is par excellence the product of industrial
countries f

Even Athens itself, m companion with European towns, is mdustn
ally insignificant, and the interests of a handful of labourer* are not
going to be promoted at the expense of the discomfort of a whole

Near Eastern Notes

547

The writer has evidently never taken the trouble to read modern works
on the labour Movement, or on Social Science , or if he has done so, be
has utterly failed to understand them, as is evidenced by the superficial
remarks quoted, which go to show that he has not grasped the elementary
facts as to Labour and political change He is still living in the middle
of the last century His mind is embedded in traditional notions as to the
sanctity of institutions, which must remain unalterable in the midst of
perpetual change His ignorance is betrayed by his anxiety to have us
conclude that in Greece only a handful of men produce wealth, and that
the rest are idle Agriculturists are not labourers, according to his view ,
and as in the towns only a handful are labourers, then we must say that,
with the exception of that handful, the rest are non producers, and therefore
it is not worth while to bother ourselves about the problem of the handful
of men who enable all the rest to live 1 — a reductto ad absurdum

He ignores the fundamental truth of all political thought, that labourers
are all those who render service to the community by their exertions,
manual or mental *

Does he consider Aristotle ignorant because he laid down the principle
that the sole purpose of the State is the well being of its members ?

Does he consider that the citizens of Greece or any State enjoy well-being
according to the ideal of Aristotle and Plato ?

The Parliaments for which he has such a superstitious regard are too
often but monbund institutions of a monbund social system, which has
lost touch with the true democratic pnnciple underlying the parliamentary
idea When composed mainly of lawyers, landowners, and profiteers,
Parliament will have to yield precedence to another form of supreme
assembly, more representative of the coming social system, composed of
those who are rendering useful service to the community by hand or brain ,
for the war has given a coup dc gr dee. to all institutions whose position m the
past was mainly to represent the interests of a favoured, and too often self
seeking, minority

Norn — In view of what is taking place, it may be well to reproduce the
paragraph referred to, as the suggested trend of events has been literally
fulfilled

The acuteness of the Constantinople problem brings into relief the com-
petence of Hellenism as the key to its solution The Supreme Council
seems to be gradually driven to the conclusion that an end must be put to
the Turkish domination m Europe, and that this end can only be fittingly
put by tbe Greek arms — thus avenging in a final battle against the beredi
tary foe of Hellenism tbe woes and throes of five centimes.

* * * # *

For tbe moment Greece, in striking self abnegation, forgets all that she
is enduring m the expectation of the signal to inaugurate her career of
social reconstruction. Events march so rapidly that the signal may he gwen
before our next issue. — From “ Greek Notes ” (now “ Near Eastern Notes ”)
Asiatic Riviiw, Apnl> 1910.

548

WHERE EAST AND WEST MEET

A RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE DAY, AT HOME
BEARING ON ASIATIC QUESTIONS

Contbnts Bait India Association — Royal Asiatic Society— Royal Society of Arts—
National Indian Association — Shakespeare Hut

The next meeting of the East India Association will be on July 12,
when Mr W H Moreland, csr, c,ie, will read a paper on “ The Study
of Indian Poverty * Lord Meston will be in the Chau- The first paper
in the autumn will be read as usual in October, when the Rev T Van der
Schuren will lecture on 14 The Education of Indian Boys belonging to the
Better or Upper Class Families ” The Proceedings of the East India
Association for this issue will be found on pp 395 478

On the occasion of the opening of the new premises of the Royal Asiatic
Society at 74, Grosvenor Street, on March 30, the Chinese Minister,
Sao-Ke Alfred Sre, in his inaugural address, entitled “ China and Western
Education," paid a tribute to the importance of the work on which the
Royal Asiatic Society was engaged that of unravelling the tangled threads
of the past, and reconstructing its history, religion, language, customs, and
buried mountains A long line of scholars had thus interpreted the East
to the West, and thereby enabled the West to understand more clearly the
needs and aspirations of the East His Excellency made special reference
to the movement of sending Chinese Government students to England
The first effort was made about forty years ago These were followed by
more detachments The most noted among them were Admiral Sir Shan
Chen Ping, who is at the head of the Chinese Navy, and Sir Chihcen
Lofenglu, who served as English Secretary to Li Hung Chang, and later
became Minister to England At present there were about 190 students
in this country The Anglo-Chinese Friendship Bureau was rendering
most valuable assistance to Chinese students m this country During the
war, when there was a shortage of doctors m this country, Chinese medical
students, in order to show their gratitude for the education they had
received here, stayed behind after they were qualified and served at
different hospitals m various posts, ranging from consulting officers, house
surgeons, house physicians, and resident medical officers to registrars and

Where East ana West Meet

549

tutor*. In some instances they were in charge of military wards A quali-
fied lady doctor became the school medical officer at Bradford, and three
men successively held the post of resident medical officer at the General
Post Office, London

Lord Reay, m his speech, pointed out that the most noteworthy events
in connection with Oriental Studies in England that had occurred during
the past five years were the opening of the School of Oriental Studies
by His Majesty the King in February, 1917, the amalgamation in 1918 of
the Society of Biblical Archaeology with the Royal Asiatic Society, and the
joint meeting of that Society with the Soci&d Asiatique and the American
Oriental Society m 1919 Under its energetic Director, Sir Denison Ross,
the School of Oriental Studies had already achieved remarkable success
It was thus only after many years of fruitless agitation that London was
placed in possession of a School of Oriental Studies which removed the
anomalous situation m which we had been with regard to the training of
men who in various capacities would represent us in the East We had
among returned members of the Civil Service all the elements for the
personnel of such a school, and had until then not given them an opening
for their talents Now the prospect before us was exhilarating , we had no
lack of tents and a wide expanse of research in various directions to cover
The republic of letters did not appeal to popular passions, neither was it
plutocratic , but it had its own reward It contnbuted to remove pre-
judices In the past administrators had found time to investigate problems
of philology, ethrology, and archaeology We might look forward to send
out to India young men well equipped to continue these traditions
A joint meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society and Central Asian Society
was held at the School of Oriental Studies on June 8, when Sir Aurel
Stein, k c 1 e , lectured on “ A Chinese Expedition Across the Pamirs and
Hindukush m a d 747 ” The lecturer, with the aid of a fine selection of
lantern slides, entered very thoroughly into the military geography of those
regions and paid a tribute to the military genius and the stratagems of the
Chinese Commander It would appear that this campaign was the result
of very elaborate preparation At any rate the problem of supplies must
have been studied very carefully before venturing into these inaccessible
and barren regions The undertaking culminated with a great victory,
hut, as the lecturer pointed out, the results were largely reversed a few
years later

At a meeting of the Royal Society of Arts on Friday, June 18, a paper
was read by Sir Valentme Chirol entitled “ The Enduring Power of
Hinduism ” This lecture was delivered m memory of the late Sir George
Bird wood, whom the past contnbuted a great number of interesting articles
to the Asiatic Review We quote “ If East and West can meet, they
met m the heart of one who was as passionate and understanding a lover of
India as of Britain Again and again, during the Great War, he loved to
dwell 00 every incident that showed the heart of India to be in unison with
that of the whole Empire, and with his special worship of the Rajputs as
the incarnation of Indian chivalry. He seemed to identify all India with the

550

Where East and West Meet

gallant figure of old Sir Pertab Singh, who •ought, though he did not find,
a hero’i death on the stricken fields of France.*'

The lecturer concluded with the following important statement .

w To those who hoped for a more rapid fusion of Indian and Western
ideals, some of the phenomena which have marked the latter day revival
of Hinduism have brought grave disappointment, but the inrush of
Western influences had, perhaps, been too violent not to provoke a strong
reaction It is easy for us to pass judgment on such institutions as caste
and Brahman ical ascendancy, and in a paper read only a few years ago
before this Society by Sir Krishna Govmda Gupta we heard very severe
condemnation passed upon them by one of the most distinguished
pioneers of enlightened Indian Nationalism But let us not forget that to
those institutions India owes the one great element of stability that has
enabled her to weather so many tremendous storms without altogether
losing the sense of a great underlying unity stronger and more enduring
than all the manifold lines of cleavage which have tended from times im-
memorial to divide her Hinduism has not only responded for some forty
centuries to the social and religious aspirations of a large and highly
endowed portion of the human race, almost wholly shut off until modem
times from any intimate contact with our own Western world, but it has
been the one great force that has preserved the continuity of Indian life
Could it be expected to yield without a struggle to the new forces, how-
ever superior we may consider them and however overwhelming they may
ultimately prove, which British rule has imported into India during a
penod of transition more momentous than any other through which she
has ever passed, but still very brief when compared with all those other
periods of Indian history which have only recently been rescued from the
legendary obscurity of still earlier ages ? *

On Tuesday, June 8, the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the
National Indian Association was celebrated at at, Cromwell Road The
Right Hon Lord Lamington, ccug, g c i e , presided The company
present numbered over two hundred The dominating note that was struck
in the speeches proved to be the expression of the hope that the Indian
students now in this country would be able, on their return to India, to fill
successfully the new posts that were open to them there, and also to assist
In the emancipation of Indian women Mrs Pennell, a Parsee lady
doctor, recounted her experiences in India, and how she hoped that the
difficulties in her path would now be removed Dr J Estlin Carpenter
pointed out the uri! ^-mce of increasing the number of branches in
India, so that the progressive women’s movement should be able to spread
Sir Krishna Gupta, k. c s.i., dwelt on the critical tune through which India
was now passing and the opportunity for the young men present to prove
their worth m administrative posts Many references were made to Mus
Mary Carpenter, of Bristol, whose work was now being admirably earned
on by Miss Bede. At the conclusion Mr M Banerjee proposed, and Mr
K. K. Chaterjee seconded, on behalf of the Indian students, a hearty vote
of thanks to Miss Beck.

Of late the accommodation available at Cromwell Road has been much
appreciated by students on their first arrival from India, and an effort is

Where East and West Meet

55 *

made to keep th e m informed of educational, technical, and academical
activities m this country.

There was an interesting gathering at the Y M C A Hut, Gower Street,
on June 1a, in honour of Dr. Tagore Mr All Khan delighted his
audience with the manner m which he was able to adapt Indian words to
English music Mr Roy’s Bengali songs and the Bengali National
Anthem, sung in English, with words written by his father, were also much
appreciated Mr Shah recited a Sanscrit poem, and Mr Abarsi rhapso
dized Tagore A very interesting speech in Urdu was read by one of the
students, after which Dr Tagore said a few words to those present A
large number of Indians were in their national dress, and the general effect
was thereby made very picturesque

On July 6 a joint party will be given at Cromwell Road by the North
brook Society and the National India Association 1 he “ Maharanee of
Arakhan ” will be performed It is hoped that an Indian ladies orchestra
will be present Further, in the middle of July it is intended to give
a recital of “ Post Office ” Dr Tagore has promised to be present

The “Id' (Idulfitr) was celebrated, as usual, at the Mosque Woking,
on June 17

OBITUARY NOTICE DR BURROWS

The news that the career and work of the late Principal of King s College
have been cut off came as an arresting shock It is not easy for those who
saw him regularly, and knew his mental and physical vigour, to realize that
Dr Ronald M Burrows is no more To all appearance he had a long
tenure of office before him, with opportunities of extension of work for the
College We are led to think of a fine sportsman, who has started on a
brilliant race, admired by spectators who predict a glorious win, suddenly
compelled to retire from the field through an unsuspected and fatal hindrance
A special feature of Dr Burrows s work at King s College was encourage
ment and extension of modem language studies, and the introduction into
the curriculum of little known languages — eg , Polish, Roumanian, Serbian,
Bulgarian, and Modern Greek, of the last of which the Principal was a
master During his term of activity Professor J F^tzmaunce Kelly was
appointed Cervantes Professor of Spanish, Prs^paii^ 0 ^ 6 Young is the
C&moens Profeasor of Portuguese, and Sir 'Bqjprd Pares occupies the
Chair of Russian. There is no professor of Czechoslovak, but it will be
remembered that during his exile Professor T G Masaryk lectured at
King’s College in connection with the Slavonic School on European political
problems, Russian literature, and his native land. Dr Burrows organized
a send-off at College when Dr Masaryk left foT Prague m triumph, to
assume the duties of President of the Czecho Slovak Republic (The
writer had long known the country, and had written and lectured on
Bohemia, but it was Dr Burrows who first introduced him to President
Masaryk ) The number of public lectures, such as those arranged by the

553

Where East and West Meet

United Russia Societies Association, and the Anglo-Spanixh Society, has
increased, and a senes of eminent men presided, inter aiws the Earl of
Plymouth, Lord Bryce, and the late Sir D Mackenzie Wallace. Dr
Burrows was associated with Dr R W Seton- Watson, the authority on
Central Europe, in the work of the New Europe. Mention should be
made of Sir Israel Gollancz and his work of widening and deepening interest
in Shakespeare. On practically every occasion the Principal was on the
platform, and made some wise and often witty contribution to the discussion
As an old student at King's College, the writer is convinced that the loss
sustained is heavy and irreplaceable, and the burden for Dr. Burrows's
successor is far from light

Another side of Dr Burrows’s activity was social welfare work at
Cardiff and Manchester, in which Mrs Burrows was a great helper The
engrossing duties as Principal in London did not permit of his continuing
this work, and consequently many London students were unaware of his
record in this direction He also belonged to the Fabian Society The
educational world is vastly the poorer through the loss of Dr Ronald M
Burrows

Francis P March ant

THE CYPRUS DEPUTATION

Dr Lanitis has communicated to us the following “The Cyprus
Deputation has returned to London in order to lay before the British
Government the reasons for the union of the Island with Greece. We
had gone back to Cyprus last December, but meetings which were held
there exhorted the deputation to return to England and to interpret to
the British Government the anxiety of the people for the union of the
country with Greece The deputation has now submitted a new memorial
urging the early solution of the question. What the Cypnots submit is,
that four-fifths of the population are Greek, and they are ready to meet the
views of the military experts by the cession of some port, in the Island, if
necessary, for they fully realize that a strong England means a stronger
safeguard for liberty ”

te ifest A most Reliable 'me ']/

mi lira, Eioms.

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